First look inside new Auckland 5-star Horizon by SkyCity hotel: knockout art, architecture, interior design

Sophie Beever, design principal at Furnz Group, led the soft interior fitout including furniture and bedding design.

Natural stones, marble, wood and locally commissioned art are the main themes in this striking curvey building with such a sad history.

Hallam said the ground-floor reception-neighbouring Onyx Bar, which opens onto the exterior laneway, has a Waitākere Ranges theme: tropical upholstery fabrics, many large plants and wood feature strongly.

Onyx Bar inside the new Horizon by SkyCity hotel in Auckland – part of Gordon Moller and Jake Tindall’s art work Transcendence can be seen on the wall behind the bar. Photo / Michael Craig

SkyCity Hotels is now New Zealand’s largest single-site accommodation provider: 938 rooms in three interconnected hotels on three street blocks.

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Opening the 13-level Horizon behind TVNZ and between Nelson St and Hobson St was delayed for around five years because the hotel’s services were damaged in the devastating 2019 fire at the NZ International Convention Centre.

Porte cochere ceiling at Horizon by SkyCity has a daytime and nighttime lighting theme to give the impression of being linked to the outdoors even though it is actually not. Photo / Michael Craig

A glass airbridge (nicknamed Goliath) over Hobson St connects the hotel to SkyCity’s other properties. A second glass airbridge on the hotel’s upper level connects it to the NZICC.

The hotel’s porte cochere is on the lower ground floor beneath the Hobson-Nelson public laneway connecting the hotel to the NZICC. Vehicles enter that porte cochere off the one-way Nelson St near TVNZ 1, near the Victoria St intersection.

Gordon Moller’s porte cochere ceiling along with the 30m long honey onyx tile wall in the new Horizon by SkyCity. Photo / Michael Craig

Three unusual porte cochere features:

1. Ceiling: designed by one of the hotel’s architects Gordon Moller. Moller also designed the SkyTower which turned 25 years two years ago. “In New Zealand’s first underground porte cochere, foliage and native bush are expressed in abstracted free form lines in the ceiling panels,” SkyCity says. The ceiling will have daytime and nighttime colours and its decorative form represents forms found in nature;
2. A 30m-long 2cm thick honey-toned tiled onyx wall: “Seamlessly connected by the veins through the stone and the detail of the natural surface, back-lit, welcoming guests with a glowing amber hue”;
3. Giant secure lock-down vehicle entry/ parking bay: large enough to take two coaches one behind the other: essentially, a giant locked-down VIP “garage” allowing access to the NZICC and new hotel. Entry off Nelson St, before public car parking areas beneath SkyCity. Designed for heads of state, visiting dignitaries, delegates or others with height security needs, said to have been originally designed for the likes of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin if they attended APEC here in 2021;
4. John Allen’s Pōhutukawa Roots: an artwork commissioned for the back wall of the seating area. Root pieces were collected from Beachlands, Glendowie Cliffs, Music Point and Karaka Bay, then polished. These signify early forms of growth using abstract concepts of nature.

Pōhutukawa Roots by John Allen is an art work commissioned for the back wall of the seating area in the porte cochure at the new Horizon by SkyCity hotel in Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig

Onyx Bar has relaxed and formal table seating. The new 140-seat The Grill restaurant has a public-facing galley-style kitchen and Hallam said could take up to 700 guests.

Onyx Bar in the new Horizon by SkyCity has a tropical theme. Photo / Michael Craig

Features include an outdoor seating area with a waterfall wall, a loggia hearth and 12-seat marble-top table in its private dining with its own powder room and audiovisual screen.

Jane Downes’ artwork is on the main back wall of The Grill restaurant in Horizon by SkyCity. Matteo Ugolini’s Moby Dick lights are a feature here too, a reference to the form of whales. Photo / Michael Craig

Circular art by Jane Downes is on The Grill’s back wall: sculptural oxidised forms made from recycled steel sheets. Matteo Ugolini’s Moby Dick floating white lights take inspiration from the “land of the long white cloud” and are a reference to whales breaching.

The Grill by Sean Connolly was the now-shut restaurant fronting Federal St beneath the SkyCity Grand Hotel. Now, modern Indian restaurant Cassia headed by chef Sid Sahrawat trades from that space.

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In what would appear to be somewhat of a homage to Connolly’s restaurant – also the subject of a television programme – SkyCity used part of the old name in its new hotel restaurant.

The Grill at Horizon by SkyCity – main restaurant in hotel opening August 1, 2024. Photo / Michael Craig

The hotel has a 24-hour reception and 24-hour gym.

Hallam says room rates range from $300/night up to around $1200/night.

Beds were manufactured on special commission by Auckland’s A. H. Beard of Wiri “and if you love the bed, you can have one delivered to your house”, Hallam said, citing a link between the hotel to the bed manufacturer, designed for appreciative guests.

Horizon Suite room 1201 on level 12 or the top floor is a 60sq m room in the new Horizon by SkyCity hotel. Photo / Michael Craig

Room 1230 is 59sq m and asking $300/night.

New Zealand goods in the minibar include Mrs Higgins Choc Chew, Mother Earth roasted and lightly salted cashews, Whittaker’s Super Peanut Slab, Whittaker’s Hokey Pokey Crunch and Serious Popcorn Sweet & Salty.

Drinks include Antipodes water, Absolute Vodka Panhead Supercharger, Heineken, Monteiths Cider and Peregrine Pinot Noir. Various flavours of Zealong tea are offered.

Lounge area in the Horizon Suite room 1201 at the new Horizon by SkyCity hotel in Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig

Elite harbour room 1202 looks towards the Auckland Harbour Bridge, is 29sq m with a king-sized bed, asking $500/night.

Horizon suite 1201 is 60sq m, has a reception entry area with a powder room, a lounge seating area, a California king bed and doors which open fully onto the bathroom with a stand-alone feature bath. The bed’s headboard fills the entire wall and is panelled in American oak ash with inserted cream leather panels.

Horizon by SkyCity is between TVNZ and the NZICC. It is in the block between Hobson St and Nelson St in Auckland’s CBD. Photo / Michael Craig

Room service all-night dining menu (10pm-6am) offers pumpkin and maple soup with garlic bread ($25), 15 pieces of Szechuan chicken dumplings with coriander and pickled chillis ($37), truffle and parmesan fries with aioli ($16.50), a caesar salad ($29), club sandwich ($39), butter chicken ($36).

Dessert and cheese choices are also on offer.

Painted exposed concrete wall on level 12 in the new Horizon by SkyCity hotel. Photo / Michael Craig

Antipodes’ Glow Daily with Vitamin C, Kakadu Plum and Kiwi Seed Oil hand and body lotion is on offer in bathrooms along with its hand and body wash and Glow Daily soap. Black titanium marble features in bathrooms.

Craig Potton New Zealand, Te Hei Tiki by Dougal Austin, Across the Evening Sky by Bill Hammond, Mountains, Volcanoes, Coasts and Caves – origins of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Natural Wonders by Bruce W. Hayward and The Makers by Monique Hemmingson are books in rooms for guests to read while staying.

Tricks within hotel

1. A single bedside switch controls all lights: no hunting for that last pesky switch when you’re tired. One switch offers relief but as soon as your feet hit the floor, a nightlight activates for safety.
2. Porte cochere internal roof makes you think it is shining with filtered daylight, but it’s artificial lighting because the roof is beneath the laneway between the hotel and the new NZICC.
3. The hotel has an earth-to-sky theme, with the roots of pōhutukawa in the lower ground level but Transcendence by Gordon Moller (19 pōhutukawa leaves) floating up to the glass atrium – like the sky.
4. Clear glass above modesty glass frosting in showers means you can glimpse city views but nakedness is shielded from the surrounding office and apartment inhabitants.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.

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