Flared concrete portal columns announcing the entrance on Flinders Lane give W Melbourne its most legible gesture toward the street — a pair of splayed forms that frame the lobby threshold like a stage proscenium and signal, against the backdrop of Melbourne's Edwardian Port Authority Building opposite, that this tower has no interest in deferring to its neighbours. The building, designed by Woods Bagot and completed in 2021, rises 28 floors above the CBD with 294 rooms, the facade a curtain of floor-to-ceiling glazing hung with perforated metal screening that catches light differently across the day. Interiors by Nic Graham carry the same appetite for sensation through every level. Guest rooms layer black-and-white tartan carpet against brass-framed bed platforms, chunky hand-knitted throws in acid yellow or magenta providing colour punctuation against otherwise controlled palettes, perforated copper screens filtering the entry to some configurations. The WET deck pools its reflections across a mirror ceiling suspended above a marble-tiled terrace, the sinuous white reception desk and brass bistro furniture giving the space the atmosphere of a 1970s Italian resort reimagined at altitude. Most theatrical is the rooftop bar, where a canopy of radiating timber ribs fans overhead in a structural gesture somewhere between a whale skeleton and a tensioned timber vault, backlit LED strips running along each rib to illuminate the curved dark-oak bar below — a room that makes Melbourne's skyline feel like borrowed scenery.

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