Rosewood Bangkok

Seen from the Skytrain as it passes Ploen Chit station, the tower of Rosewood Bangkok looks like two buildings in the act of meeting: twin glass volumes that lean towards each other and touch high above Ploenchit Road. The hotel opened on 31 March 2019, and the form was the architects' reading of the wai, the Thai greeting of pressed palms.

History

The site belongs to the Lamsam family, whose company had its headquarters nearby and who developed the tower as a mixed-use project with the hotel in its upper half. Rosewood was brought in as operator during the planning years of the 2010s, when the group was adding city hotels across Asia under the ownership of Hong Kong's New World Development. The Bangkok hotel opened in the spring of 2019, two weeks after Rosewood Hong Kong, and was the group's second hotel in Thailand after Rosewood Phuket of 2017.

Architecture and design

Kohn Pedersen Fox designed the 30-storey tower. Its two slender volumes are set at an angle and connected by sky bridges and shared floors, so that the gap between them narrows as the building rises. The interiors are by Celia Chu of Taipei, who used Thai silk, carved teak and bronze against a palette of dark greys, and placed the lobby and the restaurants on the lower hotel floors with the bedrooms stacked above. A terraced garden runs up the building's lower section. The top floors are given over to the largest suites and to the bar.

Rooms and suites

There are 159 rooms and suites, large by the standards of a Bangkok tower, with floor-to-ceiling windows over the city. The Sky Villas on the uppermost floors are duplexes with private terraces, plunge pools and dining rooms, and the top villa, the Rosewood Residence, is the largest. Lower categories have deep baths set against the glass. Most rooms look north over Ploenchit and the embassy quarter or south towards Lumpini Park.

Dining

Lakorn European Brasserie, on the hotel's lower level, is the all-day restaurant, with a terrace onto the garden. Nan Bei serves contemporary Chinese cooking in a two-level room named for the north and south of China. Lennon's, on the 30th floor, is a bar built around a library of several thousand vinyl records, with a listening lounge, cocktails and a view across the city; it has become the hotel's best-known room. The Lounge, off the lobby, serves tea and lighter meals.

Wellness

Sense, A Rosewood Spa, has treatment rooms, a sauna and steam room and a gym. The outdoor infinity pool sits on a mid-level terrace with a view along Ploenchit Road.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a ballroom and a series of smaller salons, with their own pre-function space, used for Thai and Western weddings, corporate dinners and board meetings. The Sky Villas and the terrace of Lakorn are used for private receptions. The Lamsam family's own events have been held here since opening.

Location

Ploenchit Road runs east from Siam through the embassy district towards Sukhumvit. Ploen Chit BTS station is at the hotel's door, Central Embassy and the Erawan shrine are within ten minutes on foot, and Lumpini Park a little further south. Suvarnabhumi Airport is about 40 minutes by car outside the rush hour, or reachable by the Airport Rail Link to Phaya Thai and a change to the BTS. Among luxury hotels in Bangkok it is the one closest to the embassies and the newest of the towers along Ploenchit.