Network, at Park Hyatt Zurich
The luxury Pudong Shangri-La East Shanghai, asked Adam Tihany to make a ten-foot deconstructed rice bowl at the entrance to Jade on 36 restaurant – you walk through it, to get to the dining area. At InterContinental Hong Kong, GM Jean-Jacques Reibel commissioned a two-ton asymmetrical, amoeba-like wooden shape on metal legs – you cannot really call it a table. It was made by Jake Walker, with top of African rosewood, bordered with American burled poplar. Day and evening long, people lean against it, sit around it, just look at it.
Park Hyatt Zurich had 91 pieces of stunning art when it opened in 2004. In the lobby, for instance, there is a seven-colour swirl, all of 540 sq ft total, by Sol LeWitt. Now the hotel, wholly owned by the Pritzker family, has commissioned its 92nd artwork. This, to the left, is it, a 2.4 by 6.5 metre shape of copper-plated iron wire, suitably, for a hotel, called Network. It is by local artist Martina Vontobel, and you can be sure it will forever be a talking point. I, for one, cannot wait to see it, in reality.
