Grand design

FRESH FROM A US$24 million 'reconception' of the recently reopened Park Hyatt Washington, Tony Chi is already immersed in his next project, a 21/2-year 'conceptualisation' of the Park Hyatt Shanghai. 'I can do anything I want,' says Chi, and promises that the hotel, when it opens in mid-2008, close to his 50th birthday, will be a clear statement about 'modern China and what China should be today and what China, personally, should be tomorrow'.

'If you ask me, 'Will the Hyatt be my masterpiece?' I will say, 'Yeah'. 'Is it going to be the hotel of the century?' I will say, 'Yeah'. 'Will it be something with a lot of soul?' You bet.'

Park Hyatt Shanghai will be the pinnacle for Tony Chi & Associates, says the Taiwan-born, New York architect and designer of Mongolian descent, who, since 1984, has been inextricably linked with fine hotels and restaurants.

Among his headline-grabbing works are Umu in London's Mayfair, Asiate at the Mandarin Oriental in New York, NoMI in Chicago, Glass at the Sydney Hilton, Madison in Bangkok and, overlooking Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, Spoon by Alain Ducasse, at the InterContinental. 'Which is my favourite city is like asking me which is my favourite finger,' he says.

The youngest of five children - Chi has three sisters and a brother - he 'got away with anything'. Rather than go into business, he entered the University of New York to study urban planning, and the Fashion Institute of Technology, also in New York, to do interior design.

'I wanted to be the mayor of New York, and that meant being able to build a city,' he says. 'Today, I'm not so ambitious.'