Lush grounds for Jurong hotel

Genting Hotel Jurong will debut next Thursday in a cool green coat consisting of more than 230 palms and 390 trees.

The hotel is located in the Jurong Lake District, which is transforming into a lively leisure and commercial hub with a waterfront park.

The 557-room hotel, designed for leisure and business travellers, is part of Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) which is wholly owned by Genting Singapore of the Genting Group.

On Wednesday, the 15-storey building, which is conceptualised as "a hotel in a garden" was shown to invited media.

Seventy shrub species and 20 species of trees and palms cover the building and there are terraces on most floors. Some of these plants will be irrigated with condensate water from air-conditioners.

The air-conditioners are supplied with cool air from a heat recovery system, which results in 30 per cent energy savings for the hotel.

"One of the first things we targeted was a hotel's typical heavy use of air- conditioning," said lead project designer Lim Keong Wee of Team Design Architects. "That led to the heat recovery system."

Speaking about the green theme of the hotel, he added: "We wanted the hotel's design to relate to its surroundings - the green plot ratio was something we felt was important... because it is pertinent to Singapore."

Mr Lim's company provided the architecture and designing services for Genting Jurong Hotel. Its past projects included residential towers The Sail at Marina Bay.

Inside the hotel, clean lines and colours such as white, light brown and beige dominate, with the occasional splash of hues such as bright pink in restroom signs and a purple ballroom doorpost.

The furniture is mostly clad in leather-like or fuzzy materials to add a spunky contrast to the clean lines of the rooms. In the guestrooms, the art wallpaper prints above laminated bedheads and brightly coloured mugs add pops of colour.

Rooms are compact and designed with an open concept. Except for the bathroom, there are no doors on the dark wood laminate cabinets, so guests can reach their belongings easily.

The beds are positioned higher than usual from the floor, so this opens up storage space for luggage under the bed and results in a faster turnaround for cleaners.

The rack rates provided by the hotel are from $380 a room a night for the superior room, $430 a room a night for the deluxe room and $800 a night for a suite.

Rack rates refer to the price customers who request accommodation on the same day pay without prior booking arrangements.

Other facilities include Internet stations, a gym that opens all day and an all-day laundromat with a coin-changing machine for guests with foreign currencies. The machine was set up based on the resort's past experience of guests approaching the reception in RWS asking for Singapore dollar coins.

The hotel's meeting and conferencing facilities include the Genting Ballroom with a capacity for up to 300 guests. There are also five meeting rooms.

There have been "overwhelming inquiries" for the meeting and conferencing facilities and for the ballroom in particular, said Mr Chow Keng Hai, vice-president of rooms at RWS.

The hotel, which sits on a 9,027 sq m plot, is near two shoppping malls, JCube and JEM, and the International Business Park. It is within walking distance of Jurong East MRT station.

leejs@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 25, 2015.
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