Grand Hotel (Warsaw)
The Grand Hotel in Warsaw is a hotel built in the 1950s on Warsaw's Ulica Krucza. Operated by the Orbis tourism chain until 2004 , it now operates as a four-star hotel under the Accor brand, Mercure .
location
The address of the hotel is Ulica Krucza 28, it belongs to the inner city district . The hotel is located between Wspólna and Hoża streets. After a parking lot, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Polish: Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego ) joins to the east . In the north on the Krucza is the State Treasury Ministry (Polish: Ministerstwo Skarbu Państwa ), in the south an office building (No. 24/26), which today houses departments of Kredyt Bank SA and Kulczyk Holding .
history
A "Grand Hotel" already existed in Warsaw at the beginning of the 20th century. It was located on Ulica Senatorska 29. Another pre-war hotel of the same name was located on Ulica Chmielna 5. Both hotels no longer exist.
The building in the Krucza was built from 1954 to 1958 according to the plans of the architects Stanisław Bieńkuński and Stanisław Rychłowski . It was planned as a hotel for delegation members visiting the surrounding ministries. The building was elegantly furnished and the spacious rooftop cafe on the 11th floor with its view over Warsaw exuded metropolitan flair and was a meeting place for Warsaw society at the time. The hotel is part of the eastward rebuilding of the Krucza, which was badly damaged in the war . The entire side of the street was moved to the rear in order to turn the previously narrow Krucza into a prestigious two-lane street on which several ministries and company headquarters are located.
Grand Hotel Orbis
From the time it opened, the building was known as the “Grand Hotel Orbis”. It had 416 3-star guest rooms. The Polish Olympic Committee had its seat in the building (from which the name of the rooftop cafés “Olimp” goes back). In addition to delegations from all over Poland who had to visit ministries and company headquarters, many athletes always dismounted here.
Mercure Grand Hotel
As part of the takeover of the Orbis hotel division by the French Accor Group, the grand hotel also fell to the new owner. Between 2004 and 2008 it was fundamentally rebuilt and renovated under the direction of Accor architect Olivier Gibault in order to bring it up to the standard of the “Mercure” hotels of the group. The number of guest rooms, now designed in the French style, was reduced to 299 in favor of enlarging the room areas. The “Grand's Brasserie” restaurant and four conference rooms were also created. The lobby was rebuilt and greatly reduced in size. Although it ties in with the Olympic tradition of the house with a large mural, it is now a modern hotel lobby without any special charm. The roof café has been converted into conference space. The hotel has underground parking and a fitness area for guests.
Since the completion of the renovations, the hotel has been called the “Mercure Grand Hotel” since 2008 and has been awarded four stars.
architecture
The hotel was designed in the style of socialist realism . The two east-facing wings are the same height as the surrounding post-war buildings on the east side of the Krucza. The front section, on the other hand, has 11 floors above ground and thus towers over and dominates the development of the area. There is a helipad on the roof. The former “Olimp” café on the 11th floor is designed in the form of a glass loggia . Underneath, the building has a stone facade, the windows of which are evenly divided in the upper part (floors 7 to 9) by square windows, in the lower part (floors 1 to 6) by elongated windows. The concrete roofing of the main entrance is striking, protruding around 5 meters from the wall like a piece of paper folded several times without any support. The lobby furniture contained futuristic armchairs and kidney-shaped tables .
References and comments
- ↑ Construction period 1907 to 1909, Architects: Maksymilian Luxenburg, Leon S. Drews and Czesław Przybylski
- ↑ Stanislaw Bieńkuński (1914-1989) was a Polish architect, city planner and professor at the Warsaw Politechnika
- ^ Stanisław Rychłowski (1909–1981) was a Polish architect and town planner
- ↑ according to Jerzy S. Majewski, Zupełnie nowy Grand Hotel at Gazeta.pl from September 16, 2009
See also
literature
- Julius A. Chroscicki and Andrzej Rottermund, Architectural Atlas of Warsaw , 1st edition, Arkady, Warsaw 1978, p. 87
- Jerzy S. Majewski, Spacerownik. Warszawa Sladami PRL-u, Books of Walks. Landmarks of People's Poland in Warsaw , from the series: Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej , Agora SA, ISBN 978-83-932220-0-1 , Warsaw 2010, p. 72 ff.
Web links
- Website for the hotel at accor.com
Coordinates: 52 ° 13 ′ 39.4 ″ N , 21 ° 1 ′ 6.6 ″ E