Como The Treasury brings glamour
Australia’s latest luxury hotel is located within the redeveloped State Buildings complex in Perth.
Como The Treasury which has been opened in Perth’s oldest quarter is the first Australian property created by the Singapore-based Como Hotels and Resorts group.
The 48-room hotel sits on 16,000 square metres. It has expansive communal spaces and guestrooms with an average size of 75 square metres, not including balconies.
It is the work of Perth-born architect, Kerry Hill, who has linked three heritage buildings and retained their original features while creating a new hotel.
All rooms feature high ceilings, natural light flooding through big windows, open floor plans with Italian oak furniture, and bathrooms that comes with free standing baths, twin travertine basins and three-head showers. The complimentary mini bars have carft beers and the drawers contain restaurant-quality glassware and custom Eucalypt ceramics.
The hotel is basically three grand colonial red-brick and stone buildings, dating back to 1875, just a few years after Western Australia stopped taking convicts.
The buildings were home to public offices over the years. These included the Lands, Titles and Treasury departments, as well as the general post office. They were vacated in 1996, when the government shifted offices to suburban hubs.
Enter property developer Adrian Fini, one of the founders of the Little Creatures brewing company, who had spent 20 years lobbying to redevelop the buildings.
He finally got the nod in 2008. After four years of planning, the site was put through a three year 110 million reconstruction.
Fini was determined to see it through.
"These buildings have been locked up for 20 years," Mr Fini told Gourmet Traveller, "So I wanted to make sure the solution was something Perth could be proud of."
The hotel is the latest addition to the Como Group’s portfolio which includes resorts in the Maldives, Phuket, Bhutan, Bali and the Caribbean. Como also runs urban retreats in London, Miami and Bangkok, the last home to David Thompson's acclaimed restaurant Nahm.
by Leon Gettler, May 26th 2016
