1 · Position
Hongkong Land began the development in the 1970s under its Central Redevelopment Scheme, on ground that included the site of the old Hongkong Hotel — in its day the best-known hotel on the island. The first phase opened in December 1980 and the whole was complete by 1983: shops on several levels around a large central atrium, with office towers above. It was the first commercial atrium building in Hong Kong.
2 · Why it is in the Library
The order is the entry. The retail came first, the atrium organised it, and the hotel was inserted into an office tower in 2003 — part of Edinburgh Tower converted into the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, directly connected to the shopping floors. Everywhere else in this group the hotel is planned with the complex; here a mall of twenty years' standing decided it wanted one. The house that resulted is unusual in its own right: 113 rooms, the smallest of them over 120 square metres, with interiors by Adam Tihany and Peter Remedios, and a spa over two floors.
3 · Candour
⚑ Rooms at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental were closed for renovation as of 2025, with the restaurants operating. Hongkong Land has announced a programme to reposition the complex as ultra-luxury with tenant investment reported above a billion dollars; the Library records the announcement as an announcement, per §22, and will not describe the result until it exists.