Niccolo Chengdu

Niccolo Chengdu fills Tower 3 of Chengdu IFS, the mixed-use quarter of some 760,000 square metres that the Hong Kong group Wharf built at the junction of Hongxing Road and Dacisi Road, with towers by Kohn Pedersen Fox. Wharf pitched the project in 2011 as "an oasis within Chengdu", modelled on its Wheelock Square in Shanghai, and the mall opened in January 2014. The hotel opened in stages from 28 March 2015, the first of a new brand from Marco Polo Hotels, Wharf's hotel arm, named Niccolo after Marco Polo's father.

Indesign Live, reporting the opening, named the team: LWK Architects as main architects, KPF for the façade, Peter Remedios's studio for the interiors, and Hirotoshi Sawada's studio for the art. Sawada's "Breeze Bird" meets guests at the entrance, a sculpture Business Traveller counted at 3,888 metal pieces, like a flock of birds.

Most of the 238 rooms and suites sit between the 9th and 25th floors, and they are sold by what they face. The Temple View rooms look over the historical Da Ci Temple and the Taikoo Li district around it, whose lanes OKYTO covered in Taikoo Li Chengdu at ten. The one exception to that range is a Temple View room, the N1 Deluxe Temple View King, on the 5th floor. The Panda View rooms look the other way, over the IFS Sculpture Garden to the "I am here" installation, a giant panda climbing the outside of the mall.

Photo: AlexHe34 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Sources: Indesign Live; e-architect; European Chamber; Business Traveller; Business Traveller; Wharf Holdings; Ctrip; Niccolo Hotels; Niccolo Chengdu; Niccolo Chengdu