Is it a garden? A park? Oh, it’s the Pan Pacific Orchard;

His first hotel opening was the Crowne Plaza Chengdu in 1996 and when the new Pan Pacific Orchard soft opens on June 1, it will be Marcel Holman’s seventh opening – and he openly admits it, it’s a whole new world when it comes to hotel look and feel.

Gone are those days when hotels were huge towering blocks of concrete and steel, sometimes glass, screaming, “Look at me.”

Now they resemble giant trees, gardens or parks, whispering, “Psst, look at me”, making a more subtle statement about its sense of place.

Such is the feeling when you walk into the Pan Pacific Orchard, a new build operated by Pan Pacific Hotels Group, a member of Singapore-listed UOL Group Limited.

You feel like you’re walking into a park or forest, through foliage-lined trails. You look up and the 23-storey hotel tower looks like a giant tree sticking out into the skyline. Over 200% of the hotel’s land area is enveloped in foliage and there’s lots of water features to enhance that feeling of being immersed in nature.

Not only are these features pleasing to look at, but they are also environmentally-friendly. Pan Pacific Orchard is a BCA Green Mark Platinum-certified for its sustainability features, which include rainwater harvesting system and renewable solar panel technology to light up the sky gardens, control pool temperature and power the irrigation.

The design of the terraces also optimises natural daylight and facilitates cross ventilation, hence reducing overall dependency on energy usage.

Designed by award-winning WOHA Architects, the hotel features four seamlessly connected terraces – Forest, Beach, Garden and Cloud – each providing its own experiences across unique environments. As I said, it’s like walking into a garden in the city, with different zones.

Sitting in the open courtyard, Holman, vice president operations, China, Indonesia, Japan & pre-opening general manager, looks up at the tree-lined skyscraper and said, smiling, “It will be interesting to see what kind of birds we attract. There’s already a resident pigeon in the lobby.”

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