The task of creating Crown’s latest $300m, 658 room hotel, Crown Metropol, in Melbourne’s prospering Southbank precinct was a challenge welcomed by leading Australian architecture and interior design firm, Bates Smart.

The Crown Metropol is the fourth Crown hotel project for Bates Smart – their most recent being Crown Towers, City of Dreams, Macau which opened last year.

Distinctive, vibrant and unmistakably modern, the 28-level Crown Metropol hotel features a unique wave-like shape, sleek podium entry, 658 light-filled guestrooms, a day spa located on the top floors of the hotel, a sky bar and terrace on Level 28, Gordon Ramsay’s maze restaurant and maze grill, extensive meeting facilities and dedicated Business Centre, and a training and recruitment facility.

Bates Smart’s Director of Interior Design, Jeffrey Copolov and Director of Architectural Design, Kristen Whittle headed the architecture and interior design for Crown Metropol. They confirm that it took a team of 48 architects and interior designers 36 months to design and deliver the new hotel, drawing on their company’s unique ability to design it from the outside in. Bates Smart managed all aspects of the design process from start to finish; from master planning and urban design through all architecture and interior design, right down to the final placement of the last accessory.

The design brief for Crown Metropol’s brief provided for a design that was similar to existing sister properties with the addition of imparting a more youthful and dynamic form.

Copolov says, “Not only did it need to fulfil a particular aesthetic brief, it had to meet Crown’s exacting standards for technical performance and functionality for both front and back of house.

“We wanted the hotel's design to challenge tradition and add a sense of fun with unorthodox elements, dark, dramatic shapes and earthy, grounded silhouettes inspired by nature.

“From the stylish guestrooms, studios and lofts to the more dramatic public areas and day spa, natural materials in neutral colour tones provide warmth and texture while vibrant shots of colour, inserted via contemporary carpets, specially commissioned artworks by Australian and international artists, accessories and upholsteries, create drama and excitement,” says Copolov.

The sinuous ‘S’ form of Crown Metropol’s hotel tower and its activated podium creates a striking and highly memorable gateway into Melbourne.

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