Shades of Vegas in Macau pleasure palace Hotel Lisboa, focal point of city 55 years ago

During a family trip to Alameda, California, in the early 1980s, we were lounging after breakfast in my aunt’s house when a tall Eurasian lady entered nonchalantly through the back door and made herself at home. She introduced herself as Auntie Mamie and proceeded to share stories about her memories of Hong Kong. It was not until many years later that I realised this woman was Mamie Ho, cousin of Stanley Ho, the late tycoon and owner of Macau’s Hotel Lisboa. I never realised how significant a role the Ho family’s casino would play in my own family’s story. My late father, Lo Wing Cheung, worked for Eric Cumine, the “starchitect” of the day, who designed the Lisboa. Cumine also happened to be married to Yvonne Ho, Stanley Ho’s younger sister. From the mid-1950s until 1975 when we emigrated to Toronto, Canada, my dad worked closely with Cumine as an assistant architect on dozens of major projects, including the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital, Truth Lutheran Church in Hong Kong’s Yau Ma Tei neighbourhood, and Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui. For dad, though, Hotel Lisboa was special. Earlier this month, Hotel Lisboa turned 55. To commemorate the occasion, owner SJM Resorts will mount an exhibition titled “The Lisboa, Stories of Macau”, as its inaugural show at GLP Art Gallery in Lisboa Grand Palace – another of its Macau hotels. It is slated to open in the second quarter of 2025 and will include archival images and personal stories, with Hotel Lisboa as a key feature. Despite now being surrounded by larger and more glittering integrated resorts, Hotel Lisboa continues to draw punters wishing to pay homage to the first Asian shrine devoted to entertainment. For me, Hotel Lisboa will always be intertwined with family visits to Macau, checking the availability of big buns from its bakery to take home, and growing up with discarded blueprints of projects as temporary tablecloths for evening meals. When my Macanese uncle Vong Tong Meng opened his photography studio Fotografo Artes in 1964, dad helped him with its design. Around this time, work began on Hotel Lisboa. Hotel Lisboa was … a new and glamorous institution where we could do anything Rui Leão, the co-founder of Macau-based LBA Architecture and Planning It made sense for Ho to entrust Cumine with its design. Dad was assigned to oversee its details and construction, as Macau was already a familiar place. Macau in the early 1960s was a sleepy enclave compared to the gaming mecca it is today. Ho and his partners Teddy Yip, Yip Hon and Henry Fok Ying-tung founded hospitality company Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau in 1962. Before that, Tai Heng Company held the monopoly on Macau casinos – an arrangement that dated back to 1934. Thinking much bigger than Tai Heng’s owners Kou Ho-ning and Fu Tak-lam, Ho imagined a castle where every pleasure could be indulged in under one palatial roof. When Hotel Lisboa opened in 1970, its whimsical architecture was unlike anything previously built, with a light dusting of Las Vegas glamour. One of my earliest memories of Hotel Lisboa was playing in its marble-clad lobby. Rui Leão, the co-founder of Macau-based LBA Architecture & Planning, has similar childhood memories. Hailing from Goa, India and born in São Tomé and Príncipe in central Africa, Leão relocated to Macau with his parents in 1977. His school was across from the hotel and he hung out there in the afternoons in the late 70s and early 80s as a teen. “At the time, Macau was a village and the divide between the local Chinese, Macanese and Portuguese communities was huge,” Leão recalls, noting that, aside from the Military Club and the odd cinema, there were not too many places where people could meet socially. “Hotel Lisboa was the focal point of the city – a new and glamorous institution where we could do anything. There was 24/7 adult content, an arcade centre with games, a bowling alley, a swimming pool. “If we didn’t have class in the middle of the day, our favourite pastime was to explore the hotel. The whole city was there. It was magical.” The pleasure palace supported eye candy for all tastes. The Crazy Paris Show moved from Macau’s Dom Pedro V Theatre to Hotel Lisboa in the late 90s. Leão remembers Chinese and Thai ladies of the night lined up along the corridor near the casino entrance at any and every hour of the day. “Whatever happened at the Lisboa stayed in the Lisboa,” he says, chuckling. “That corridor was like a catwalk in the years after the handover [from Portugal to China, in 1999]. It was amusing.” The complex consisted of connected cylindrical blocks of varying heights and diameters, with the sea to its west and south before land reclamation in the 1990s. It is a unique building serving a unique purpose. It carried the weight of an identity for Macau for its time Philip Liao, architect who worked on Hotel Lisboa’s renovation The ochre-and-white facade was capped by extravagant roof features resembling turrets. Some see these as silhouettes of wedding cakes, while others insist the tops resemble birdcages or roulette wheels. “Colour is a smart element in the hotel’s design,” Leão says. “There are so many different compositions to the hotel and colour binds everything together. The colour reflects the sun in a special way. “Walking close to it, there is a feeling of being in the tropics; a spirit of entertainment. The hotel’s extravagance makes it obvious that it is a casino. At the same time, the form comes across as heroic: we feel proud that we are in a place where everything is happening.” No expense was spared for Hotel Lisboa. In particular, arts and crafts that reference Macau’s Portuguese heritage were incorporated into the public areas. The porte-cochère at the hotel tower features a ceiling of multicoloured mosaic tiles painstakingly laid out in curving lines. “The entrance is like the mouth of a tiger,” Leão says. “The wavy lines are considered so hypnotic that they made people lose control over their impulses. As a kid, this was an impressive story.” The circular ceiling in the main hall depicts a sea voyage between Portugal and Macau, constructed with bright gold and blue mosaic tiles encircling a glittering crystal chandelier. “I appreciate how Ho honours and celebrates our colonial cultural identity,” Leão says. “There is a dimension of fantasy supported by the decoration.” The circular motif seen on the hotel’s windows continues in the building’s interiors as curving corridors and spaces that eschew corners. According to my father, the lack of straight lines was deliberately planned to encourage patrons to linger longer at the gaming tables or retail arcade. It is easy to get lost or confused in Hotel Lisboa. No wonder the house always wins. There has been continuous work on Hotel Lisboa over the years. In 2008, then director Alan Ho Yau-lun worked with Hong Kong-based architect Philip Liao to relocate the entrance, move the outdoor swimming pool indoors and do other interior work. It is still iconic. It feels safe when everything else around me is changing Rui Leão on Hotel Lisboa’s enduring charm Liao knows a thing or two about working on iconic projects. His firm Philip Liao & Partners converted Hong Kong’s historic Tai O Police station into the Tai O Heritage Hotel, and renovated the Bethanie chapel in the city’s Pok Fu Lam neighbourhood. “Hotel Lisboa has a very interesting plan,” Liao says. “Although many people talk about its feng shui chopping patrons up once they are inside, I think Eric [Cumine] was searching for a fusion of Portuguese and Chinese in his design solution. At the same time, there is strong circular geometry. This informed our addition to the hotel.” Liao acknowledges that when renovating a prestigious heritage building such as Hotel Lisboa, one has to keep in mind the original architect’s intent. “For many years, Hotel Lisboa was a landmark for the casino industry and the flagship for Stanley Ho’s empire,” he says. “It is a unique building serving a unique purpose. It carried the weight of an identity for Macau for its time. We were very excited when we were commissioned to work on its renovation.” Liao incorporated circular landscape features in the new entry, and lights, that allude to the facade’s ochre hues in a nod to the building’s history. “Our lighting design is soft, textured and indirect to give the building more sophistication while at the same time highlighting its original geometry,” he says. “The renovation references the past while being truthful to what we are today.” Leão believes that part of the building’s feng shui stems from its ongoing building works. “If casinos don’t add something new, they lose their competitive edge,” he says. “That was what made Hotel Lisboa exciting.” Although Leão admits the hotel is no longer as prestigious as it was in its heyday, he continues to frequent its restaurants, such as Noite e Dia Café. “Today, the glamour of casinos can be built with scientific accuracy,” Leão says with a shrug. “Yet there is a feeling that something is lost. “When I dine at Noite e Dia, I am filled with a sense of being at peace. The whole of my life is still there – it isn’t in the past. There is always some slight difference to the hotel. “The constant mutation is part of Macau’s charm. It represents timeless Macau. It is still iconic. It feels safe when everything else around me is changing.”

Shades of Vegas in Macau pleasure palace Hotel Lisboa, focal point of city 55 years ago

‘Whatever happened at the Lisboa stayed in the Lisboa.’ Macau’s first integrated resort and how it has been subtly updated for the new era

nproxy.org