Hospitality Design - September 2011 - 46

perspectives
the 13-room Zetter Townhouse, designer Russell Sage indulges in things Dickensian, with a melange of stuffed birds, velvet couches, and framed needlepoint. Overall, though, a certain London gentility remains, updated for the times. Nowhere is that more evident than in the 294-room Corinthia Hotel, which opened in May following London’s most expensive ($480 million) restoration. This total re-do of a Victorian pile, originally built as a hotel, near Trafalgar Square features details like a $1.5 million Baccarat lobby chandelier and bronze casts of leaves Edward on the elevator of GA doors. Design

places: london

From left: The sleek exterior of the Shangri-La London, set to open in 2013; the lobby of the Eccleston Square, outfitted with Italian marble herringbone tiled floors.

located in hotels. At Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Hyde Park’s Mandarin Oriental, designer Adam D. Tihany has looked to the chef ’s interest in historic British gastronomy for inspiration, working in heavy Tudor-inspired woods, leathers, and irons. Quince, a just-opened restaurant and champagne bar at the May Fair, a Radisson Edwardian property, is also incredibly popular, thanks to its association with celeb chef Silvena Rowe. “The designers kept in mind the Eastern Europe/Ottoman Empire focus of the menu,” says Michael Attenborough, who oversaw the project for Radisson. Sensual opulence is key here, and turquoise, violet, and cranberry the hues of choice. Rare Architecture’s Town Hall Hotel in the East End features theatrical spaces, such as a converted concert auditorium. In contrast, the hotel’s restaurant, Viajante, helmed by Portuguese star Nuno Mendes, is pared down, with mid-century-inspired chairs and tables handcrafted and designed by Rare, and lighting by Parisianbased jewelry designer, Tzuri Gueta.

Davies

International says the “interiors have a grand residential feel” thanks to a judicious mix of intact architectural features, overscale furnishings, and warm English oak. Guestrooms feature marble and limestone baths and leather-lined dressing rooms and are among the largest in the London luxury market. The property includes twostory suites carved out of the building’s turrets, a ﬁrst-ever Harrods boutique, a 35,000-square-foot ESPA that sprawls over four ﬂoors, and three lavishly appointed dining spaces, including the David Collins-designed Massimo and its accompanying bar, Bassoon. Eccleston Square, a much smaller high-end, high-tech (inroom iPads, adjustable massage beds) offering, opened in August. “It wasn’t an easy ride transforming a Grade II-listed Georgian building into a modern cocoon,” says hotelier Olivia Byrne, who handled the interiors with the help of architecture ﬁrm Woods Bagot. Muted ivory and gray hues act as a background for luxurious textures like Italian marble herringbone tiles in the lobby, silk wallpapers in the 39 rooms, and crocodile-skin walls in the elevators. Outside of town, a new-build Waldorf-Astoria ﬂag, called London Syon Park, is situated on a historically designated 200-acre estate near Heathrow Airport. Its interiors—bar and restaurant concepts by the Gorgeous Group, and 137 guestrooms by Camillin Denny—offer a signature Art Deco black-and-white elegance. For W’s ﬁrst foray into London, which features 192 rooms in a dramatically lit Leicester Square building, Amsterdam-based Concrete approached interiors so they’d “easily transition from the conservatism of business London during the day to the ﬂirtiness of the city at night,” according to Rob Wagemans, Concrete’s creative director. One example: a curving, 120-foot-long sofa unit that plays on the traditional Chesterﬁeld and serves as the lobby’s central meet-and-greet element.

Keeping Pace
With so much new coming online, the old stalwarts aren’t standing still. The Four Seasons’ $200 million interior refurbishment by Pierre-Yves Rochon (PYR), which also handled the three-year, $340 million redo of the iconic Savoy, has basically created an entirely new ﬂagship for the brand, adding ﬁreplaces and dark wood ﬁnishes that instill a clubbier feel. “We worked with color harmonies that were drawn from classic English tones,” says Lara Leskaj, a senior associate with PYR. “In guestrooms, the sienna and butter yellow shades were developed in concert with the rich burgundy and gold hues of the public spaces.” To top it all off, literally, the hotel has added a new ﬂoor, a 10th-story glass-walled perch that envelops a spa with 360-degree views of the capital. Down the block, the celebrated Dorchester will unveil 23 redesigned suites by Alexandra Champalimaud in mid-2012. “The Dorchester is one of those hotels that needs to continually update itself, while remaining the same,” observes Champalimaud, who has

Swanky Dining
Some of the most talked-about rooms in town are new dining spots

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - September 2011