While doing a lazy backstroke in the lagoon pool, my eyes gravite to the constellation of lights reflected in the mirrored ceiling five storeys above.
At this moment, all that’s on my mind is relaxation and the illuminated eye candy — not thoughts of hallmark sustainability, biophilic design, Green Mark Platinum Certification, natural cross-ventilation or carbon sequestering.
But, I will eventually wrap my head around all the eco coolness of this design hotel of all design hotels — the Pan Pacific Orchard in Singapore.
Studio Periphery The Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel in Singapore resembles a structure made out of Jenga blocks.
To be honest, my wife, Kerry, and I chose to stay at the Pan Pacific Orchard because it’s uniquely beautiful and luxurious, not because it has a bio-digester that transforms food waste into water that can be used for cleaning.
After all, the 23-storey, 347-room hotel, which opened in June 2023, is an architectural wonder resembling a tower constructed of giant Jenga blocks.
It’s most marvelous features are four, 22-metre-tall terraces scooped out of its vertical facade.
The second-floor Forest Terrace is for the open-air lobby and bar; the fifth-floor Beach Terrace for the lagoon pool; the 11th-floor Garden Terrace for the cabana lawn and patios of the Pacific Club Lounge and Florette Champagne & Oyster Bar; and the 18th-floor Cloud Terrace for the outdoor convention space.
Each guest room overlooks one of the terraces and the balcony of each room juts into the terrace’s air space.
“It creates four vertical, curated, themed and symmetrical ecosystems,” said Pan Pacific Orchard director of communications Teresa Koh as she showed my wife and I around.
Darren Soh The hotel’s columns and scooped out terraces are covered with foliage.
“We’re very proud to be a luxury hotel that at its core is all about responsible sustainability.”
Therefore, Kerry and I not only feel sophisticated to be hanging out at Pan Pacific Orchard, but we congratulate ourselves for our eco enlightenment.
It doesn’t hurt that all this environmental consciousness is uber-chic and eye-catching.
The two girthy, exposed, support columns either side of the hotel are covered in vines that are now creeping across the building and dripping from the terraces.
More than 100 other species of plants, shrubs and trees, including all those palms on the pool terrace, end up covering 300% of the hotel’s base land area in lush foliage.
Steve MacNaull / Free Press The lagoon pool at Pan Pacific Orchard is a relaxing spot.
The greenery and the terrace’s designs result in self-shading, that aforementioned natural cross ventilation, carbon sequestering and air purification.
Singapore-based WOHA Architects, a biophilic specialist, designed the hotel to be an iconic slice of nature in an otherwise largely concrete-and-glass megatropolis.
The Green Mark Platinum Certification was awarded for solar panels on the roof that power all common areas, collected rainwater keeping the terrace ecosystems lush, the previously mentioned bio digester and Swisspro water filtration systems in every room eliminating the need for single-use plastic bottles.
All in all, it makes Pan Pacific Orchard the new prototype for high rise tropical hospitality.
And we take advantage of that hospitality.
Guest rooms are compact and well-designed with comfy beds and high-end linens and that balcony that juts out into the terrace air space.
Steve MacNaull / Free Press The view of the lagoon pool from an eighth-floor balcony.
We lounge at the lagoon pool; sip signature cocktails called Cloud and Forest (in a nod to the terrace themes) at Florette; eat crispy pork at Mosella restaurant; and take breakfast, afternoon tea and happy hour in Pacific Club Lounge on the Garden terrace.
With the famous Orchard Road shopping street just steps away we stroll and browse.
Overnight rates start at around SG$440.
The Singapore dollar and Canadian dollar are essentially at par.
By the way, the Pan Pacific Orchard name is a nod to the area’s past as an agricultural swath of fruit trees before becoming an urban jungle.
Steve MacNaull / Free Press Teresa Koh is the director of marketing communications at Pan Pacific Orchard.
We’ll also stay three nights at the Pan Pacific Singapore, the original, 38-storey, 790-room landmark hotel of the Singapore-based hotel chain for its proximity to touristy Marina Bay and all of its waterfront walks and parks, restaurants and bars.
Pan Pacific has 50 hotels and resorts in 30 cities in Asia, Europe and North America under the Pan Pacific, Parkroyal and Parkroyal Collection banners, including Pan Pacifics in Vancouver, Whistler and Toronto
We also venture farther out into Singapore to do a bike tour through the Kampong Glam, Chinatown, Little India, Civic and Central Business districts, Marina Bay and Singapore River neighbourhoods; hang out at Coastes Beach Club on Sentosa Island; and go on the Night Safari to spy rare white tigers and hand feed a rhinoceros carrots.
In April, Air Canada started flying four times a week between Vancouver and Singapore, the only non-stops connecting Canada with the multicultural, Asian city state of six million people.
In fact, it’s the longest flight Air Canada operates at 16 hours and 10 minutes Vancouver-Singapore.
One-way fares on the quick, quiet and comfortable Boeing Dreamliner 787 start at $734.
Check out www.aircanada.com and www.panpacific.com.
