Located along Scotts Road near the Orchard Road tourist and shopping belt, the 22-storey Hyatt Hotel was one of the many hotels established in the Orchard Road area during the hotel construction boom of the late 1960s and 1970s. Prior to its opening in 1971, Thai graphic designer Peter Bunnag was specially invited to Singapore to design the costumes and uniforms for the staff of the hotel. The hotel did not experience the smoothest of starts, with a lawsuit brought against the owners for causing noise pollution and a fire breaking out on its 18th floor just months after its opening. Originally owned by International Hotels, a Hong Kong associate of local firm Yat Yuen Hong, the 824-room hotel was subsequently sold for $47 million in 1976 to two investors, Filipino tycoon Enrique Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Group, and Hong Kong businessman Kevin Hsu. Following several changes in ownership stakes, the hotel (renamed as Hyatt Regency) was eventually sold off in 1986 by Sealion Hotels for over $180 million to Borneo Properties, a firm belonging to the Sultan of Brunei. The hotel was relaunched as the Grand Hyatt Singapore in 1998 and remains a distinctive landmark along Scotts Road.
