For too long now, Kuala Lumpur’s cache of five-star hotels have tended to default towards the cliché of big marble foyers and equally massive flower arrangements. Hats off then to the fledgling locally-based Ormond Group for its chutzpah.
For starters, its debut property, the 113-room The Chow Kit, is named after the nearby street market and red-light district in buzzy Jalan Sultan Ismail, just around the corner from the Shangri-La.
Inspired by the neighbourhood’s colour and somewhat seedy reputation, the Brooklyn-based Studio Tack has created an appropriately moody noir-ish vibe which it layers with thick fabrics, tufted banquettes, and rugs.
The public spaces – dressed with locally commissioned artwork and conceived, much like an Ace hotel lobby, as a neighbourhood hangout – are neatly set off by the rooftop yoga and meditation pavilion, and an in-house restaurant serving up a menu of updated Malaysian standards. All of which is a promising start to next month’s opening next door of the Ormond’s micro-room hotel, MoMo. §
