Portman Ritz-Carlton
Shanghai, China
To honor its legacy as an epicenter for commerce and business, and its pedigree as the first foreign luxury hotel in China, Gensler restored the Portman Ritz-Carlton’s lobby bar to its original grandeur. The lobby’s decor is modern-meets-traditional, with massive wooden columns, floor-to-ceiling windows, dark wood roundtables, polished brass and a dramatic curtain of metal mesh interwoven with LED light drapes. Its East-meets-West design aesthetic and layering of pieces from different periods, including tiles crafted using the ancient Chinese method of liuli, transports guests to a bygone era with an updated arrival experience. In the library, Art Deco-inspired furnishings and vintage mirrors are interspersed with 1920s Shanghai artifacts, such as a Chinese apothecary cabinet and ceramic porcelain ware.