A statement that doesn't stand still

By ANNE GIBSON

Changes are afoot at the towering Metropolis, with a new name, a new general manager and a health spa opening soon.

Andrew Krukziener's touch of Manhattan in the middle of Auckland is going through changes just a year and a half into its life.

The 40-level Somerset Grand Metropolis changes its name next month to Ascott Metropolis, after a corporate reshuffle of hotel interests headquartered in Asia.

New Metropolis general manager Frank Delli Cicchi, an Ascott appointment, has made changes in preparation for the rebranding, while Mr Krukziener has a new five-star health spa operator coming here from Australia.

Spa Chakra from Sydney will open in November in a previously vacant area on level eight beside the heated indoor pool, offering guests and residents even more health and fitness options in the luxurious tower - the tallest residential building in Auckland.

As for its commercial success, only 27 of the 380 apartments remain unsold, and just one shop on the High St frontage is yet to be leased.

Mr Krukziener has decided to allow a food operation in there.

Apartments are still selling, available to buy outright, for rent or as hotel rooms. Renting a two-bedroom Metropolis suite costs $700 a week. A three-bedroom deluxe penthouse apartment costs $2000 a week.

If you have $245,000, you can buy apartment 807, which is a one-bedroom on the eighth floor.

The most expensive suite for sale is the entire 36th floor for $6 million. It is a shell but could take a "truck-load" of bedrooms, says Mark Hackshaw of Krukziener Properties.

The entire 35th floor was sold late last year for more than $6 million.

But the scale, height and grandeur of Metropolis have little to do with its interior decor.

When interior designer Stewart Harris, of Martin Hughes Architecture, and Mr Krukziener worked together on the inside of the tower, they thought only of one predominant theme: simplicity.

The rooms should look elegant but plain, with brown the over-riding colour scheme, ranging from warm tans through to beige, chocolate and fawn.

Not for them any garish 'brights,' which would have detracted from the city and water views.

"Brown is the new black - a lot of hotels like it because it will take a minimum of five years to date," Mr Harris says.

A clever detail throughout Metropolis is a triple-step design theme, in line with the shape of the shining copper dome on the gigantic tower.

The cornices have the triple-step shape. So do handrails, door handles, mirrors, architraves, exterior balcony balustrading, cutlery and even the glassware. The shape pops up where you least expect it, but the more time you spend in the tower, the more places you discover this subtle design quirk.

"A good design theme should be subtle, so that it gives continuity because the whole interior feels it has a consistency," Mr Harris says, explaining that he was inspired by the art and design of ancient civilisations.

Mr Krukziener puts it differently: "It was an art deco theme that I wanted to achieve, and the step theme is a common deco element."

Mr Harris and Mr Krukziener are as proud of their work now as they were on opening night just before Christmas in 1999.

The Somerset name will vanish, following the international hotel chain's takeover by Asian-controlled Ascott, based in Singapore.

Combining Somerset with Ascott will create a $2.7 billion company with 6000 hotel or apartment rooms in 16 cities and 10 countries. Already, the Somerset website links directly to Ascott's.

Mr Harris, who also designed the rooms in the Sebel Suites of Auckland in the Viaduct Harbour, had spent 18 years with the Hilton Group as its corporate designer, based in London but with responsibility for hotel projects throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East.

So he was well-qualified for the Metropolis job. The result was an award from the Design Institute of New Zealand, which called the interior decor "the most sophisticated solution" and "a seamless and sophisticated statement, a real coming of age for our industry."

It was "appropriate today but transcends any attempt to date. The project was very ambitious and carried off its entirety to a level never seen before in New Zealand."

So what's it like inside this award-winning tower?

The grand entranceway is via the former Magistrates' Court building facing Albert Park on Kitchener St and forms a statement in itself, reflecting Auckland's history and a bygone grandeur.

But when it came to how the hotel foyer would look, Mr Krukziener and Mr Harris turned to the other side of the world, visiting New York to see the inside of the Four Seasons Hotel and its neutral, earthy tones.

Mr Krukziener organised a worldwide tour for the team crucial to his tower, also visiting buildings in Singapore, Italy and London.

On that tour were also Metropolis project architect Richard Goldie, of Peddle Thorp Aitken, and project manager Nigel McKenna, of Promanco Kenman, who was involved with the tower for six years.

"We had a year doing initial feasibility studies, two years of planning, two years of building and a year to tidy up afterwards," Mr McKenna recalls.

Casting his mind back to standing in the Four Seasons in New York, Mr McKenna notes the differences as much as the similarities.

"The sameness is in the design approach, but they are different in terms of scale - the New York hotel lobby is much larger."

Taking the best from the Four Seasons resulted in an almost entirely cream hotel lobby with an onyx ceiling and inlaid marble floor.

But go upstairs and the suites could not be more of a contrast, sporting the darker, richer brown tones on walls, carpets and furnishings.

In other hotels, rooms are designed to protect guests from suicidal tendencies - windows and are fixed shut.

At Metropolis everything opens, resulting in a breathtaking, up-close encounter with Auckland's skyline from the open balconies.

Napier's Consolidated Joineries made a statement with its Tasmanian oak veneer joinery.

The Hawkes Bay firm, owned by Ian Norrie, manufactured its Stylewood range for Metropolis, making all the units at its factory, then moving north to install the kitchens, bathroom vanities, wardrobes and storage cupboards.

Award-winning Fisher & Paykel came to the party by manufacturing one-off half ovens and half DishDrawers, combined in a single tower, in the studio kitchens. The suites have full-sized appliances.

Links


The Ascott

Martin Hughes Design
Metropolis