By AA Patawaran “Since we opened our doors in 2009, we have never stood still,” said Lawrence Ho, chairman and CEO of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd., at the opening of Morpheus at the City of Dreams in Macau. When he shared what Melco, which developed the City of Dreams complex on the Cotai Strip in Macau, stood for, saying that “we don’t simply want to serve people what they like right now, we want to amaze them with awesome new experiences that they won’t get anywhere else in the world,” the Hong Kong billionaire cited the just-opened ultra-luxury hotel, the icon of the “New Macau,” as a magnificent example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se0CSGOLjls&feature=youtu.be Here are eight ways the 39-story Morpheus stands tall among today’s hotels.

1. It’s Lawrence Ho’s dream pursued to the limits, costing him and his Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd $1.1 billion to realize. The introduction of Morpheus at City of Dreams is the fulfilment of the forward-looking vision of the youngish CEO, who, like his company, “never rests, never follows convention, never takes the easy path.” “Right from the start, I was determined to build something unique and extraordinary,” he said. “We’re not just opening a new hotel——we’re opening a new chapter for Macau. We’ve built a landmark for the city and an icon for Asia. Morpheus is a thank you to China and a love letter to Macau.” The idea of City of Dreams was born, added Ho, to establish a new standard of luxury, Asian luxury, and a new destination for China’s guests of the future.
2. It’s by the legendary Zaha Hadid, maybe the very last of the projects of this Pritzker Prize-winning Iraqi-British architect before she succumbed to a heart attack in 2016. But more than a project, Morpheus is a new monument to her life’s work, which she devoted to liberating “architectural geometry giving it a whole new expressive identity.”  The twin-tower building, connected at the roof and at the base, is the world’s first ever free-form exoskeleton high-rise structure soaring gracefully 39 stories from the ground, a monolithic block structurally supported from the outside by a gleaming aluminium skeleton, which creates large open-plan areas and expansive spaces within, and encased in a steel and glass lattice shell. It is also by far the most challenging large-scale steelwork of its kind to ever be accomplished, indeed a giant leap into the future of hotel design.
3. It’s a room designed for the future by Macau-born, Long Beach-based Portuguese-American interior designer Peter Remedios, but it’s a room that’s designed for you right now. Morpheus’ 772 guest rooms, comprised of more-than-standard rooms,181 suites, six sky villas that connect to private salons, and three pool villas each with its own indoor plunge pool. Each room is equipped with a master in-room control tablet, from which, deep in luxurious Frette and Mühldorfer sheets, guests have everything at their fingertips—the lights, the temperature, the blinds, the curtains, the music, the in-room entertainment, their dreams, and the mood in which to wake up after untroubled sleep. Depending on the room category, the sheets go from 600 to 1,000 thread count, cotton sheets or Belgium linen, plus in-room, there is a whole lot more to make your stay perfect, such as an oversized tub, the walk-in, retail-style closet, a fully automated, sensor-operated toilet, The Madison Collection bath linen, Bernardaud chinaware, Royal Selangor bathroom accessories, Hermés or Aqua di Parma toiletries, Alessi tableware, a top-of-the-line Dyson hairdryer, a Nespresso coffee machine, and a floor-to-ceiling “maxi” bar. “It’s a story of hedonism, of rewarding yourself, of indulging yourself, but I also played along with the fluid, organic structure of the building,” said Remedios of his design.
4. It’s all a dreamspace, inspired by jade artifacts. Guests enter through a 35-meter-high atrium lobby on the ground floor and already the experience is surreal, the white and silver faceted marble walls appear like geometric clouds over the reception area bedecked with Hadid’s sleek white Nekton stools. Even the 12 glass-clad elevators with panoramic views of both the hotel interiors and exteriors are quite a mesmerizing ride.
5. It is foodie heaven, further lit up by a constellation of Michelin stars, thanks to an entire floor dedicated to French-born Monégasque chef Alain Ducasse, who has set up two restaurants side by side at Morpheus—Alain Ducasse at Morpheus, which serves up Ducasse’s signature contemporary French haute cuisine, and Voyages by Alain Ducasse, which features dishes, mostly Asian, inspired by his travels. There is also the Voyages Bar for pre-meal or post-meal libation. According to Ducasse, one of only two chefs in history to hold 21 Michelins throughout his career, the underlying theme between his two restaurants at the Melco-developed luxury hotel is the marriage of design and cuisine, which he says “makes the experience more striking” and leaves a more lasting imprint on the senses.
6. It’s a treat for the sweet tooth. This is the first time French pastry chef and chocolatier Pierre Hermé, “the Picasso of Pastry” and the World’s Best Pastry Chef, according to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy in 2016, has collaborated with a hotel in Greater China. This heir to four generations of Alsatian bakery and pastry-making tradition set up a state-of-the-art pastry nook at the atrium lobby of Morpheus, a nook spacious enough to accommodate up to 37 guests for light snacks, creative cocktails, salon de thé treats, eye-popping and mouthwatering plated desserts, and of course, the iconic pastries and the beloved macarons. In-house guests are also spoiled with a daily supply of Pierre Hermé x Morpheus chocolates at bedtime and, like a dream, with a spread of Pierre Hermé pastries at the breakfast buffet.
7. It’s an art space. So much modern art at Morpheus, such as the Sky paintings of Zhao Zhao, 9 Seas by Mathieu Lehanneur, the anthropomorphic foam bears I Am Busy and Look at Me by Paola Pivi, the four untitled paintings in Plexiglass frames by Thilo Heinzmann, and Wild Pansy by Jean-Michel Othoniel. Seeing Good Intentions, a larger-than-life parent-and-child sculpture by Brooklyn artist Brian Donnelly, better known as KAWS, in its own dedicated space at Art on 23, as the scenic elevator whisks you up or down the building, does give you a sense of Lawrence Ho’s vision, a sense that you might be in another world or a thousand steps further into the future.
8. It’s a dream. After all it is named after the god of dreams in Greek mythology. If you find yourself at Morpheus, chances are you are in a place of dreams or you are on your way there.

  www.cityofdreamsmacau.com