The Dolder Grand
The Dolder Grand (formerly Dolder Grand Hotel ) is a 5-star hotel in Zurich - Hottingen on the western slope of the Adlisberg , known as the "Dolder" , which was founded in 1899 under the name Grand Hotel Dolder . The hotel has 173 rooms on 40,000 m². It is one of the Leading Hotels of the World .
history
Forest house Dolder
The history of the hotel began with Heinrich Hürlimann (1841-1910), a trained cooper , property speculator and innkeeper. After demolishing the existing building and converting it into a theater , he secretly bought cheap land on the Zürichberg above the city, after he had a pub in Zurich for the largest beer garden, later for the “Comedy and Floratheater” and finally the existing building . He planned a vantage point and spa hotel, accessible with its own cable car, the Dolderbahn . This was inaugurated in the summer of 1893 and the "Waldhaus Dolder" restaurant was opened in the same month.
The Zurich architect Jacques Gros (1858–1922) had in front of a massive building on the mountain side a block of wood decorated with a tower and roof turrets. Hürlimann himself was the tenant. Waldhaus and Bergbahnen paid so well that the stock corporation founded by Hürlimann decided to continue expanding.
The forest house was blown up in 1972. A new hotel building was built in its place by 1975. This is to be replaced by a modern building from 2016. The new construction of the Dolder Waldhaus was postponed due to a tax dispute. According to the company, the new building should begin in 2021. However, due to financial difficulties, it was announced that the construction project would not be implemented.
Grand Hotel Dolder
Architect Jacques Gros built a luxury hotel in the Swiss timber construction style, which was popular at the time, which combined forest house romance and the demands of pampered guests. In 1899 the "Dolder Grand Hotel & Curhaus" was opened. The house offered space for 220 guests and was equipped with a telephone, telegraph and shared bathrooms.
While art historians described the house as the “prototype of kitsch”, the “Dolder” quickly became the meeting place for Zurich's noble society and the venue for luxurious balls. Guests included Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , Haile Selassie , Albert Einstein , Yehudi Menuhin , Thomas Mann , Winston Churchill , Walt Disney , Sophia Loren and the Rolling Stones .
In the 1920s, the hotel switched from seasonal to year-round operation. At the same time, extensive extensions were built: the main building was extended by a staff wing and the main entrance was moved from the front to the rear of the house. In the early 1960s, a modern extension with 60 additional rooms was added, which lost the original symmetry of Jacques Gros' building.
In 2001 the entrepreneur Urs Schwarzenbach took over the majority of the shares. In 2004 the hotel was temporarily closed in order to comprehensively renovate the building.
On April 3rd, 2008 the hotel, renovated by Norman Foster , reopened. According to the majority shareholder Urs Schwarzenbach, the renovation work cost 440 million francs. All buildings erected after 1899 have been removed, the historic main building has been restored and the facade has been completely restored to its original condition from 1899. In addition, the main building is now surrounded by two modern wings. Two floors were added below the old building. Heiko Nieder, who has won several awards, has been the head chef ever since .
In the 2019 financial year, Dolder Hotel AG achieved a profit of 80,000 francs (2018: 70,000) with room occupancy of 56% (2018: 62%), 36,000 occupied rooms (2018: 39,000), 55 ' 000 overnight stays (2018: 59,000) and an average room price of 717 francs (2018: 728 francs). However, the profit is owed to the fact that the main shareholder Urs Schwarzenbach waived claims of over CHF 28 million.
literature
- Walter Baumann: A guest in old Zurich. Hugendubel, Munich 1992.
Web links
- Official website of The Dolder Grand hotel
- Dolder forest house
- Website of the owner of the hotel, The Dolder Resort
Individual evidence
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: price list, as of January 2012. (PDF) accessed on January 11, 2011
- ↑ Entry in "The Leading Hotels of the World
- ^ Dieter Nievergelt: Jacques Gros. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 28, 2005 , accessed June 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Zukunftsprojekt 2016 ( memento of January 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Hotel Waldhaus Dolder, accessed on February 8, 2013.
- ↑ Due to tax dispute: new construction of the Dolder Waldhaus postponed Tages-Anzeiger , June 3, 2019
- ^ Dolder Hotel AG - Dolder Waldhaus. Retrieved May 22, 2020 .
- ^ Dramatic financial situation at Zurich's luxury hotel Dolder. In: Inside Paradeplatz. May 27, 2020, accessed on May 29, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
- ↑ Tomas Niederberghaus: Make old out of new. Norman Foster freed the Zurich Grand Hotel Dolder from the sins of the sixties. In: Die Zeit , No. 25/2008.
- ↑ Caspar Schärer: Deep embrace and tight corset. ( Memento of July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tages-Anzeiger , March 26, 2008; Retrieved October 10, 2009
- ↑ Dolder: Urs Schwarzenbach waives 28 million francs. Retrieved May 22, 2020 .
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '22.3 " N , 8 ° 34' 23.5" E ; CH1903: six hundred and eighty-five thousand six hundred eighty-eight / 247511