REBIRTH OF AN ICON
Mercure Melbourne Treasury Gardens:
13 Spring Street, Melbourne VIC
(03) 9205 9999 or h2086-RE02@accor.com
Newly refurbished and launched on February 29th, Mercure Melbourne Treasury Gardens is the new name for a hotel that has seen a number of transformations over the 50 years since it was first built. Given the hotel’s prime position on the edge of the CBD, it’s not surprising that in the 1960s and ’70s it was a popular destination for touring rock bands.
In its incarnation as the first Australian Sheraton, the hotel found itself in the spotlight as a result of the now infamous and bungled ‘mock’ raid by ASIO in 1983. Neither the hotel nor the police were informed about the exercise, which was then to become the subject of a Royal Commission. Now, after a $4m and three-month renovation of its 164 rooms, Mercure Treasury Gardens opens its doors to a new era in 4-star accommodation. With interior design by Guy Blunden, of Watermark Architecture & Interiors, the Mercure Treasury Gardens is the first of the Australian hotels to showcase the new Mercure design standards. The rooms are bright, welcoming and, most of all, functional. Photos by Liam Duffy of Duffy Design decorate the bed-heads, featuring architectural and cultural icons from around Melbourne, firmly placing the rooms within their local environs. Views of the city or of the beautiful Treasury Gardens are on offer from the large windows, flooding the rooms with a natural light that adds to the overall cheer of the colour schemes and contemporary furniture. The striped carpet, supplied by Feltex, and the cushions, with fabrics printed by Jann Beadle of Materialised, bring a level of distinctive luxury to the rooms, inviting the exhausted tourist or conference goer to throw off their shoes and have a nanna nap before heading out into the fray once again. While the design is strikingly modern, this does not detract from the comfort or functionality of the rooms. In fact, functionality has been central to the refurbishment of the rooms according to Hotel General Manager, Phil O’Brien: “We are very excited about the excellent standard of room we now have available to our guests after three months of renovations. We have made significant changes to uplift the style and functionality of the rooms, a Mercure first which we hope will attract even greater leisure and conference numbers to our hotel.” The rooms now offer sparkling new bathrooms complete with walk-in showers, large hand basins and LED mirror lights. New lighting has been installed throughout, along with digital LCD TVs, glass-fronted fridges, Internet access, room safes and clock radios with iPod docks — all in all, the new rooms provide a thoroughly modern, stylish and restful backdrop to the myriad of Melbourne attractions that lie just outside the Mercure’s front door. — Sophie Gebhardt