Mandarin Orchard Singapore

Mandarin Orchard Singapore
Former names	Mandarin Singapore Meritus Mandarin Singapore
General information
Type	Hotel
Location	333 Orchard Road Singapore
Coordinates	1°18′08″N 103°50′10″E / 1.302111°N 103.836111°ECoordinates: 1°18′08″N 103°50′10″E / 1.302111°N 103.836111°E
Completed	Tower 1: 1971 Tower 2: 1973
Owner	OUE H-REIT
Management	Meritus Hotels & Resorts
Height
Roof	Tower 1: 110 m (360 ft) Tower 2: 152 ft (46 m)
Technical details
Floor count	Tower 1: 36 Tower 2: 40
Design and construction
Architect	Stanley T.S. Leong Lee Sian Teck Charted Architects
Developer	Overseas Union Enterprise
Other information
Number of units	~1,200
Website
Meritus Mandarin
References
[1][2][3]

Mandarin Orchard Singapore, formerly the Mandarin Singapore, and Meritus Mandarin Singapore managed by Meritus Hotels & Resorts (Chinese: 文华大酒店), is a five-star hotel located at 333 Orchard Road in Singapore. Opened in 1971 and occupying a single 36-storey block, it became a landmark for the Orchard Road area when the second block, standing at 40 storeys and 173 metres high, became the tallest development in the area when it opened in 1973.

Designed by Stanley T.S. Leong, it currently has over 1,051 rooms and 32 suites, two exclusive Club lounges and two Presidential Suites. In 1980, the South Tower was extended with the help of Lee Sian Teck Chartered Architects. The Orchard Wing was upgraded again in 2003 at a cost of S$52 million. At the top of the Main Wing is the Mandarin Club Lounge, while the taller tower has the Top of the 'M', the tallest revolving restaurant in Singapore.

As of 2011 the 2 tower blocks holds a total of 1051 rooms.The hotel underwent a major S$200 million renovations in 2009 which saw the previous hotel lobby on the first floor and the lower few levels of the hotel revamped to become a shopping arcade known as Mandarin Gallery. The hotel lobby itself was relocated to level 5 beside the swimming pool.^[4]

The hotel specifically targets at the business traveler market, and is thus a popular venue for meetings and conferences with facilities seating up to 1200 people. Voted as one of the World’s Best Places to Stay in the 2004 Gold List of Condé Nast Traveler and into the list of The World’s Top 75 Hotels in 2003 of Institutional Investor, it is the flagship hotel of Meritus Hotels and Resorts.

The Chatterbox restaurant at the hotel is well known for its award winning Hainanese chicken rice. In 2007, the originator of the dish, Steven Low, was laid off after 31 years of service;^[5] he promptly opened his own restaurant, serving the same dish at a quarter of the price. The hotel also has a recently renovated shopping complex, Mandarin Gallery (Chinese: 文华购物廊), which has branded boutiques such as Montblanc (pens), Emporio Armani, Marc by Marc Jacobs, D&G, Vertu, Just Cavalli and Mauboussin, as well as restaurants such as Ippudo.

Part of the Meritus Hotels & Resorts, Mandarin Orchard Singapore has a sister hotel, Marina Mandarin Singapore, located at the Marina Bay.

References

1. Mandarin Orchard Singapore at Emporis
2. Mandarin Orchard Singapore Tower I at SkyscraperPage
3. Mandarin Orchard Singapore Tower II at SkyscraperPage
4. "Hotel information and Madarin Gallery information". Mandarin Orchard Singapore. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
5. Tan Dawn Wei (6 January 2009). "Pink slip can be a recipe for success". The Straits Times. Retrieved 7 April 2012.