Relief at a room with a view?

A TIGHT cordon of secrecy still surrounds The Peninsula hotel's 30-storey extension - but details are leaking out.

The territory's architects are agog with the story that the men's lavatories in the Felix restaurant on the 28th and 29th floors will have a most unusual feature - plate glass urinals.

Designed, like most of the extension, by the maverick Frenchman Philippe Starck, the south-facing urinals will allow male diners to enjoy a spectacular view of Hong Kong Island and Victoria Harbour while they answer the call of nature.

Starck obviously feels because the bathroom is more than a hundred metres above street level, passersby walking along Salisbury Road will not be able to spot Felix's patrons in action and involuntarily reach for their umbrellas.

Such is the near-obsessive desire of the Peninsula Group to maintain a veil of secrecy over the work before the opening on December 5 that even the hotel staff are unable to confirm or deny the report.

THINGS are rarely what they seem in Hong Kong, and confirmation of this cliche is never hard to find.