Grand Lisboa

There is no building in Macao quite like the Grand Lisboa. That shimmering golden tower shaped like an opening lotus flower dominates the city skyline in a way that is impossible to ignore, and that is entirely the point. This is a building designed to be seen, to dazzle, and to announce that Macao is a city that does nothing by half measures. The Grand Lisboa opened in 2008, and it was the crowning achievement of Stanley Ho, the man who held a monopoly on Macao's gaming industry for over forty years. Ho was born in Hong Kong to a Eurasian family with deep roots in Macao, and he built his empire from a single casino licence granted by the Portuguese colonial government in 1962. The original Hotel Lisboa, which still stands next door with its distinctive round shape, was the heart of Macao's casino world for decades. The Grand Lisboa was Ho's answer to the new American competition arriving on the Cotai Strip. At two hundred and sixty-one metres, the tower is shaped like a lotus blossom, a flower sacred in both Buddhist and Chinese culture and also the emblem of Macao itself. At night, the exterior lights up...