Portrait of an Architect: William Lim on his Latest Oil Painting Series Created at West Lake Hangzhou

Hong Kong’s William Lim reconciles the architect and artist aspects of his life through painting portraits and landscapes in between project.

It is a cloudy afternoon in Hong Kong, yet the scene changes to full Technicolor as soon as the door opens to William Lim’s studio in Wong Chuk Hang. Bright oil paintings on the floor and along ledges vie for attention with Lim’s collection of Hong Kong art, furnishings and curios. Together, they speak to a lifetime devoted to beauty.

Lim looks every bit an architect in his spotless white ensemble. Through his architecture and interiors firm CL3, his portfolio includes the first East Hotel in Taikoo Shing for Swire Hotels and the art-focused architecture of H Queen’s for Henderson Development. In recent years, he has garnered equally as much attention for his oil paintings. His latest is a work in progress created in Building One at Hangzhou Xihu State Guest House.

“My wife Lavina and I booked a room there facing West Lake as tourists,” recalls Lim. “This particular building has a lot of history: Mao Zedong reportedly learned English there; the Sino US agreement involving Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger was signed there; and it was only open to the public in the 1990s. On subsequent trips, I made sure to stay in the same room. I’d never really painted in situ before. After being there during different seasons, I appreciate how the Impressionists could paint the same lily pond over and over again. There are over 20 acres of landscaped gardens there. This collection of paintings is about capturing time: summer, fall, winter.”

Lim hails from a traditional family; though he was always interested in art, his developer father vetoed it as a career and encouraged him to study architecture instead. While at Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Lim minored in photography. “I always loved oils but the painting process takes time,” Lim notes. Then, after decades practising architecture, the pandemic struck. While stuck at home, he recorded the birth of his grandchildren and the passing of his mother through oil paintings. “I finally had the time to paint at my own pace during covid. It was healing. I enjoy the process of communicating with myself while painting. It’s like journaling.”

As work from home eventually segued into periods back in the office, Lim mandated for CL3’s business day to start and end later so that staff members could avoid rush hour. He continued painting in the mornings before heading to work, taking up to a week per painting until he amassed a collection produced between 2020 and 2021. Its completion coincided with the opening of the Shau Kei Wan branch of Grotto Fine Art, where the first public exhibition of his oil paintings took place. “The show was about loneliness: something we all experienced during the pandemic,” Lim acknowledges. “People seemed to really enjoy it. I was told that there were repeat viewers, and some got really emotional. It was very encouraging for my first show to resonate so much with an audience. Being an artist was something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Before the opening of M+ in 2021, Lim donated the bulk of his collection of Hong Kong art to the museum. “Whenever I travel, I go to museums and galleries,” he says. “What I collect doesn’t have to have provenance; it is more important that it has a unique quality that I want to live with over time. My taste has been influenced by what I’ve seen, and it comes out in my design work and my art. In the early 2000s, I discovered Para Site and wanted to support Hong Kong’s contemporary artists. Collecting their works supports my own philosophy that art needs to reflect its place. A good artist also reflects his own background and the time he lives in.”

Lim continues to give back to the local art and design community through his donation to Design Trust’s annual fundraising auction. His latest work very much captures a time and a place: the duality of Murray House where the auction was held. “To support the auction, I painted Murray House: a rare building with two lives in two locations,” Lim explains. “I wanted to capture the drama of its urban past in Central contrasted with its natural setting today in Stanley during the Dragon Boat Festival.”

Meanwhile, his doodles on the backs of boarding passes have been collected and transformed by Cathay Pacific into art exhibited in its Beijing VIP lounge. “The works are a result of idle time,” Lim notes. “I draw and paint mainly what I see: it could be the sky, my TV screen or the fixtures on the plane. They are a record of time spent travelling.”

With CL3 recently celebrating its 30th anniversary, Lim is now devoting more time to his clients and built projects: “Work as an architect is still my priority. Art is more like the liquid that fills in the gaps.”