Not only is the Murray the successful repurposing of a government office building into a luxury hotel, but it has the distinctive spatial quality of the late sixties and its overall coherence is reflected in the hotel’s brand image. The subtle material palette is simple, apt and elegant, and complements the friendly, white, temperature-lowering surfaces. The Murray’s original architecture has been meticulously preserved and updated, and both the former car park ramp on the outside, and the restaurants and guest suites have gone viral on social media. These days nothing promotes an architectural conservation and revitalisation project better than that. The Hong Kong Designers Association believes that people enjoy good design, and that’s what The Murray has achieved.
The Hong Kong Designers Association was founded in 1972. The Association is the first of its kind in Hong Kong, and is a design body to advocate public interest in design and higher professional status for practising designers in government, cultural, entertainment, commercial and industrial sectors, for full-time, part-time teachers and administrators on the academic side of designing.