Hotel architect. Hotels with a rich history

The architecture of a hotel or a hotel complex is a complex and multifaceted concept that includes the external appearance of buildings, their internal layout, landscape organization of the territory and the interior decoration of the premises.

Architectural structures, like other phenomena of modern artistic culture, are difficult to drive into the rigid framework of any style or direction. They are often on the verge of being a complex mix of various traditional and innovative architectural techniques. Therefore, it seems logical to conditionally divide the motley variety of modern hotels into groups according to the principles of their location and the method of construction. Each group has some common architectural features. Modern multi-storey hotels are complexes with a very high level of comfort, offer a wide range of services, and have a well-developed infrastructure. Such hotels are often included in the world famous international chains - Sheraton, Hilton, etc. Various restaurants and bars, conference rooms, shops, underground parking, indoor and outdoor pools and fitness centers, as well as equipped with all modern communication facilities business centers make them attractive for both tourists and people traveling for purely business purposes. The architecture of such hotels is extremely functional and modern, it uses the latest achievements of building technologies, modern designs and building materials.

In Europe, where many authentic architectural monuments have survived, where cultural and historical traditions are strong, the architecture of hotels clearly shows a tendency to respect history, when old buildings acquire new life... In capitals and historic cities with rich cultural traditions, these hotels are usually located in close proximity to many attractions. The most fashionable of them are located in old buildings of architectural and historical value in the existing urban development. Many hotels have existed for a long time, have their own history and traditions, and are proud of their famous guests. The level of comfort in them is at the highest level, since in the process of reconstruction and renovation they were equipped with all means of modern engineering equipment. At the same time, the external appearance of the building and the interior underwent restoration, they were returned to their original appearance, the original atmosphere of a bygone era was recreated. The interiors and all the decoration of such hotels are made in the style and traditions of a certain historical period.

The decoration uses expensive materials; it can be oak panels for facing walls and ceilings, tapestries and tapestries, parquet flooring, marble, bronze and gilding are widely used. The interiors are replete with authentic refurbished fittings and antique furnishings, striking in luxury and giving the impression of being in keeping with a particular era. It can be Baroque or Empire, Rococo or Art Nouveau. The tendency for old buildings to acquire a new life and a new destiny has led to the fact that impregnable castles, which have spared time, have become strongholds of hospitality today. Medieval castle For almost nine centuries, Amberley Castle has stood among the majestic hills and vast lakes of West Sussex, one hundred and twenty kilometers from London. It strikes with a delightful atmosphere of privacy and serene tranquility, in which a unique flavor of antiquity and the highest level of comfort inherent in a world-class country hotel coexist. In total, the hotel has nineteen apartments individually decorated with antique furniture and luxurious fabrics, which have all the modern conveniences, moreover, televisions, video players, telephones and other equipment are delicately camouflaged in a historical setting.

Recently, a slightly different approach to the architectural solution of hotels located in historical buildings has become more widespread. Taking care of the external appearance and facades, the architect reserves the right to create an interior that is completely new in style and spirit. So, located in the very center of London near Trafalgar Square, the five-star One Aldwych hotel strikes with a sharp contrast: a building from the beginning of the century and an ultra-modern interior. The high pace of everyday life and the poor environmental situation in modern megacities force a person to turn to face nature, draw vitality from it. The advantages of a quiet and measured provincial life, tranquility and solitude in the bosom of nature, national flavor and features local cuisine make "agritourism" more and more attractive. Hotels offering this type of holiday are usually located in rural areas in buildings of traditional architecture. The Borgo Hotel in Tuscany, Italy is housed in an old building typical of Mediterranean architecture, in a wine estate in the province of Chianti. Today, as well as centuries ago, delicious wine and fresh olive oil are produced here. Extensive vineyards and picturesque olive groves are spread around, and the peaceful atmosphere of patriarchal Italy reigns.

National flavor is one of the main features typical for the architecture of country hotels intended for recreation. The use of techniques, details and materials traditional for a given area in the architectural look allows the building to harmoniously fit into the environment and optimally adapt to natural and climatic conditions. In addition, the national flavor, which is present both in the architectural appearance and in the interior design, is an important emotional and aesthetic factor that influences the formation of a positive image of hotels.

To give the guest pleasure, to make his stay at the hotel pleasant and boring, to entertain and surprise him, to amaze him and stay in his memory for a long time is a peak that not all hotels manage to reach. It obeys only those who firmly know the formula for success: expressive architectural form must be filled with the content of high-class service.

Hotel Ukraine is one of the seven Stalinist skyscrapers in Moscow. The hotel building was under construction at an accelerated pace for the International Festival of Youth and Students, which was scheduled for 1957. Hotel Ukraine in Moscow originally included 1000 hotel rooms and 254 apartments.

The outer part of the building is decorated with obelisks, vases of wheat sheaves, decorative walls made of five-pointed stars. The hotel's interior is also characterized by lush decoration with marble and picturesque shades. Hotel Ukraine, 206 meters high with a spire, consists of three parts. The central part of the hotel has 34 floors.

The hotel is located in an important place from the point of view of urban planning, near the Dorogomilovskaya bend of the Moscow River on the Taras Shevchenko embankment. The building was erected even before the construction of the Novo-Arbatsky bridge and the active development of the adjacent part of Kutuzovsky Prospekt.

The high-rise was supposed to become a vertical, marking the beginning of the only laid-out Kutuzovsky Prospect. According to the general plan for the reconstruction of Moscow in 1935, the projected avenue was supposed to be called Constitution Avenue and it was supposed to pass by Poklonnaya Gora through the Dorogomilovsky district to the center. Now it is New Arbat and Kutuzovsky Prospekt.

Architects of the hotel "Ukraine"

The architect of the hotel Ukraine was A. Mordvinov, who specialized more in high-speed flow construction of new quarters of Moscow. His ideas were more in line with solving problems with a catastrophic shortage of living space for the citizens of Moscow.

Therefore, to work on the project of the Hotel Ukraine, he attracted the newly released architect V. Oltarzhevsky, who took part in the work on the project of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow and was repressed in the 1930s on charges of sabotage.

After the death of I. Stalin, the architects of the skyscraper had to make excuses for its construction for a long time. With the filing of N. Khrushchev, incredible criticism of both the building and the architects who created it began. Most of the architects who took part in the work on the skyscrapers, including the hotel Ukraine, lost their Stalinist prizes and high positions. Architect A. Mordvinov was dismissed in disgrace from the post of President of the USSR Academy of Architecture.

Construction of the hotel Ukraine in Moscow

The architects and builders of the hotel Ukraine faced a difficult task. The bank of the Moskva River is not the best place for a high-rise building. The design of the building assumed that the foundation of the entire structure should go to a depth of 11 meters and 6 meters below the groundwater level.

In those years, there were two solutions to such a difficult problem, or the already well-known system of freezing the soil or dewatering using a network of pumps. More than 900 pumping units were provided for the drainage of groundwater in the pit.

Hotel Ukraine got its name only under N. Khrushchev, before that, at all stages of architectural planning and construction, the project was called the Hotel Building in Dorogomilovo.

Fully architectural ensemble was completed only at the end of the 60s, when the view of Arbat Square and New Arbat was finally formed. The Taras Shevchenko embankment and the park laid out on it have successfully complemented the look of the Ukraine Hotel.

The engineers, planning Constitution Avenue, assumed to build it up with houses three times less in height than the erected ones. However, in connection with criticism of the project by N. Khrushchev, buildings were erected on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, catching up with the hotel Ukraine and significantly diminishing its appearance.

The magazines of that time wrote that "the eerie masses that had grown on the sides of the new highway wiped out the hotel spire with their grayness, which, against their background, looks like a medium-sized sapling stretching from under the asphalt of Novy Arbat."

In 1957, at the time of its opening, the Ukraine hotel was considered the largest in Europe. The restaurant of the Stalin skyscraper was also a landmark of Moscow in its own way. From above, the entire structure is a rectangle, one side of which is the main element - a high-rise building of the hotel itself, and two long and symmetrical sides make up residential buildings.

The golden hue of the limestone near Moscow used for the cladding of the building emphasizes the richness of the facade. The majesty of the building is emphasized by the colored mosaics in the high-rise part of the building, the extensive use of bas-reliefs and volumetric sculptures.

One of the legends about Stalin's skyscrapers says that the designs of all buildings were based on the designs of the pyramids. Indeed, among the design drawings of Ukraine there is a drawing reflecting the idea of a pyramid.

It is their proportionality that contributes to the harmonious perception of skyscrapers. The architect of the hotel Ukraine A. Mordvinov based the project on a versatile pyramid. The architectural image of the skyscraper embodied the universal principles of harmony.

Interior of the hotel Ukraine in Moscow

The hotel rooms in Ukraine were designed and equipped to the highest standards of that era. The air preparation and heating equipment was virtually silent. The building was provided with a general dust removal system.

Several restaurants and shops were foreseen in the building. The restaurant halls were designed in typical Stalinist architecture. The closed rectangular architecture and the monumental suite did not match the restaurant function at all.

One of the European guests of the Ukraine Hotel wrote that "while having breakfast in the restaurant hall, I experienced the full severity of the building, pathos, excessive pomp, and my own insignificance." According to I. Stalin's idea, such feelings should have arisen among all visitors to Moscow skyscrapers.

The large dimensions of the halls and individual elements of the restaurant were completely disproportionate to a person, and even more so to a seated person. The use of expensive materials in decoration, elite fabrics and dishes made eating not just an uncomfortable event, but a very dangerous ritual. One awkward movement of the guest and for the spoiled tablecloth or dishes it was necessary to pay a large fine.

It is impossible not to mention the KGB post on one of the floors of the building. The Soviet government could not allow such an object as the Ukraine hotel, which also receives foreign guests and is located within walking distance of the Foreign Ministry building, did not have special equipment for listening to conversations and monitoring guests. And as you know, a post with duty officers of a specialized department was necessarily set up for the equipment.

High-rise reconstruction

In 2005, the building of the Hotel Ukraine in Moscow was put up for auction. The Moscow government was forced to sell the building, since there was no co-investor willing to invest almost $ 60 million in its reconstruction. More than 20 little-known companies participated in the auction. The winner of the auction was Biscuit LLC, which paid $ 275 million for the high-rise building.

The building was completely reconstructed. The interior elements of the decor, the façade, including the 73-meter spire, were renewed. During the reconstruction, one of the eight decorative towers collapsed on the restaurant building. There were no victims in the emergency, as everything happened at night.

During the analysis of the destroyed structure, architects and experts agreed that the collapse occurred due to the use of low-quality building materials during the construction of the Ukraine Hotel back in the 1950s. But despite this, its further operation is considered safe.

Today the skyscraper not only fulfills its main purpose as one of the best hotels in Moscow, but is also a striking landmark of the city. In 2010, the renovated skyscraper began to receive guests under the Radisson Royal brand. The management of the building was entrusted to The Rezidor Hotel Group. The new Radisson Royal Hotel has become part of the international Radisson Hotel chain.

One of the conditions for the reconstruction of the Ukraine Hotel in Moscow was the preservation of its historical appearance and interior decor. Now in the pompous halls of the skyscraper are located:

Restaurant "Tatler Club" A. Novikov.
Beefbar "Junior".
Veranda restaurant.
Restaurant of Iranian cuisine "FARSI".
Italian restaurant "Bono".
Mercedes-Bar.
Karaoke bar "Troubadour".
Restaurant for two "Romantic".

The most high point buildings - a glass veranda under the spire of the Ukraine Hotel, or as it is now called the Radisson Royal Hotel, is occupied by the Romantic Restaurant. At almost 200 meters in height, there is a magnificently decorated table and two comfortable armchairs, just for two.

And the main decoration of this restaurant is not its snow-white decoration and romantic setting, but of course the view! View of Moscow from the center to the outskirts. By the way, the Bono restaurant, located nearby, is included in our two ratings “The most expensive restaurant in Moscow” and “Panoramic restaurants in Moscow”.

The restaurant's cuisine fully corresponds to the height of the restaurant itself; each dish is unique and is a masterpiece of culinary art. Dinner in such unusual place will be remembered for a lifetime, and the story of an evening spent on one of the highest and most unusual rooftops in Moscow will be passed on like a family legend.

Diorama Moscow - the capital of the USSR

Hotel Ukraine in Moscow not only fulfills its function of receiving guests, but also serves as a hall for a large number of items of artistic value. In the main gallery on the first floor there is an amazing historical exhibit - Diorama Moscow - the Capital of the USSR. The diorama is a miniature Moscow of the 70s. The diorama is not only a cultural and historical monument, but also a masterpiece of panoramic art.

The diorama surprises with a very high level of accuracy. The models of the depicted objects are particularly reliable. The diorama is made on a scale of 1:75, which allows you to see in detail the entire center of Moscow at that time.

The total area occupied by the diorama is 306 sq. m. and is equipped with mechanisms that reproduce the appropriate time of day. The diorama was created in the art workshop of Yefim Deshalyt for the National Exhibition in the United States by order of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The diorama was exhibited in many countries of the world, making it possible to perform virtual travel behind the Iron Curtain to the capital of the Soviet Union. The diorama at the exhibition in Leipzig won the gold medal as a work of high art.

In the USSR, the diorama was exhibited at VDNKh and in one of the exhibition complexes in Moscow. In 2007, specially for the reconstructed hotel Ukraine in Moscow, at an auction, Diorama was bought by the new owners of the building. In 2010, restoration work on the Diorama was completed and now it is on display.

Berth of hotel Ukraine in Moscow

The pier of Ukraine in Moscow is located on the Taras Shevchenko embankment opposite the park in front of the hotel. The pier, like the embankment, was built in 1961 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of the Ukrainian poet T. Shevcheno, complementing the architectural composition of the structure. The pier is equipped for disembarking and embarking passengers. The pier of the Radisson Hotel is usually called a pier, despite the fact that in the river fleet the more common term is a pier.

Do not stop near the pier " river trams"- pleasure motor ships of the Capital Shipping Company, making regular river walks along the Moscow River. The pier of the Ukraine Hotel is intended only for the parking of ships of the Radisson Royal flotilla. The Radisson cruise along the Moskva River on modern and comfortable yachts begins from the pier of the renovated hotel.

Flotilla Radisson Royal

In 2009, 5 magnificent pleasure yachts, specially designed for the Radisson Royal, were launched:

Ferdinand.
Scarlet.
Celebrity.
Chapel.
Bon Voyage.

The snow-white yachts surprised and delighted not only the travelers themselves, but also the Muscovites, who watched with amazement the smooth glide of motor ships along the Moskva River. The ride on a pleasure boat from the Radisson Flotilla was mostly entertainment for foreign tourists. But in recent years, Muscovites have started buying tickets for cruises on the Moskva River more and more often.

In 2013, the Radisson Royal flotilla was replenished with improved yachts with class 1 salons and open decks, allowing you to experience the journey along the water surface of the Moscow River: enjoy the sun, headwind and splashing waves:

Butterfly.
Montana.
Felicita.
Primavera.
Beauty.

Cruises on the Moskva River from the Radisson Royal pier are held every day all year round. The motor ships are equipped with all the necessary equipment to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers. Panoramic glazing of all the yachts of the Radisson Royal flotilla allows you to admire the center of Moscow without any hindrances. Open decks are wonderful place for a photo session.

All ships have restaurants and bars where you can have a pleasant dinner and admire different panoramas of Moscow.

Location of hotels depends on their purpose. Hotels are located near railway stations, at the intersection of busy streets and roads, in areas where administrative buildings and entertainment establishments are located. For the construction of hotels, calm, dust-free land plots are selected, if possible with green spaces and sufficient territory for arranging parking lots and large garages. Hotels must have entrances directly adjacent to public routes messages, but located away from schools, hospitals, etc. Hotel buildings are constructed from fire-resistant structural elements.

Stairs equipped with arched railings should be wide enough. The exits from the hotel should be equal in width to the width of the flights of stairs, Doors "not more than 1 m, opening outward.

Resort hotels have large living rooms, usually overlooking the park or the beach.

Hotels of increased comfort have spacious rooms for friendly meetings of a limited circle of visitors; in hotels for tourists, only one dining room is often provided, sometimes several living rooms.

Hotel area public use is 1.5 - 4 m2 per visitor, depending on the type of hotel. The minimum area of the breakfast room can be set provided that visitors are served in two or three shifts. V large cities hotels with more than 100 rooms are profitable.

Orientation to the cardinal points: numbers orient to east, south, west. Kitchens, utility rooms, corridors, and sometimes staff rooms are oriented to the north.

Car entrances... If possible, only one driveway to the main entrance is arranged, which provides through traffic and is well visible from the hotel; the area in front of the entrance doors must be protected by a canopy.

Lobby with adjoining rooms for the through traffic of visitors and staff, it is the center of the hotel. There are stairs and elevators, all operations for registration of visitors are carried out; the length of the check-in counter is assigned at the rate of 2.5 cm per one place in the hotel.

Living room-hall often decide in the form of a covered courtyard-garden, around which various premises for residents are grouped; bar. a breakfast room (designed to serve 25% of residents, a dining room (for 50 residents), a cafe-restaurant (most often with a separate entrance).

Public premises, as a rule, they are placed adjacently in a separate wing of the building, which allows creating one large banquet hall from 2 - 3 halls by pushing apart the partitions. Sometimes there is also a separate entrance with a spacious wardrobe and sanitary facilities.

Beer hall usually arranged in the basement. In modern hotels, the area of the living rooms located on the ground floor has been drastically reduced. In many hotels major cities there are only breakfast rooms on the ground floor; however, these hotels are often directly and conveniently linked to independently functioning restaurants and cafes. The area of the first floor freed up in connection with this is allocated for shops, etc.

Rooms, as a rule, are located only on the second floor and above, large rooms are oriented mostly towards squares and parks, to the east and south, mostly small rooms overlook the courtyard-garden.

The utility room and the northern part of the courtyard garden are, as a rule, overlooked by utility rooms, staff and chauffeurs.

Kitchen are located, if possible, on the ground floor next to the restaurant, the breakfast room and the lounge-hall. It is connected to the pantries on the upper floors by lifts and service stairs.

The ratios of the areas of individual rooms vary dramatically depending on the type of hotel.

Required kitchen area per person; restaurant kitchens - about 0.6 m2; breakfast room kitchens - about 0.4 m2; only 1 m2.

1. Scheme of the layout of the hotel on a free site. First and upper floor plan. M 1: 2000.

2. Hotel, on one side adjacent to the adjacent site. First and upper floor plan. M 1: 2000.

3. A hotel on a corner plot adjacent to two adjacent plots. First and upper floor plan. M 1: 2000.

4. A hotel on a plot adjacent to adjacent plots on three sides. First and upper floor plan. M 1: 2000.

Hotel "Hyatt Regency" in San Francisco is a clear example of the implementation of the above principles of space-planning solutions for hotels. It is located on a triangular plan land plot and includes in its volume a very attractive courtyard-garden, perfectly visible from the open gallery-corridors and from the glazed elevator cabins, openly placed on the wall at the main entrance (Fig. 5).

5. Hotel "Hyatt Regency Hotel" in San Francisco. Architect D. Portman. Floor plan of the 5th floor (the lowest of the floors intended to accommodate residential rooms) and cross-section. 1 - number; 2 - room with a balcony facing south; 3 - gallery for access to the rooms; 4 - terrace; 5 - lift hall; 6 - luggage storage; 7 - openly moving glazed elevator cabins; 8 - hall; 9 - garages; 10 - floor for shops and offices; 11 - revolving restaurant; 12 - patio garden.

The hotel industry is at its peak today. High competition forces business owners to think about methods to increase the flow of customers. Among them:

Development of an individual project of the hotel facade or a hotel is an interesting and challenging architectural design challenge.
Creation of a unique hotel interior, is an effective way to attract visitors.
Cozy atmosphere, the clever combination of decor elements and practical accessories will no doubt impress visitors, making them want to come back to your hotel or hotel again and again.

The professionals of the Design Moscow architectural studio will implement a concept of any complexity for you. The attentive approach of our architects and designers allows us to create truly special projects. Depending on the chosen conceptual direction and location of the object, the external and internal appearance of the building is being developed.

Hotel building project

The projects of the hotel are very diverse and very different in both the layout and the volumes and facades of the building. First of all, its layout depends on the location of the hotel.

City hotels built-in urban structure of streets and roads obey certain conditions dictated by the city (entrance area, width of the building, style, height)
Resort hotels are located on a free terrain. Style and structure planning solutions resort hotels are dictated by the landscape and the surrounding nature (shape of the building, height, entrance parade group) Such hotels or hotel complexes make the most of the opportunities and advantages of the surrounding landscape.

Hotel projects

We will develop a Hotel Concept, create a project and implement the best design solution.

Design and design of hotels for a ski resort
Design of hotels in the mountains
Designing a hotel with a swimming pool
Design and design of family hotels
Design design Boutique hotels
Design of hotels for active recreation

For our studio "Design-Moskva", the development of a design project for a hotel or hotel is a paramount task, an indicator of the level of skill of specialists and confirmation of the company's high reputation. Ergonomic, functional and exclusive interior design solutions guide us towards the main goal: to create a space in which it will be pleasant to relax and, if necessary, work. At the same time, the wishes and preferences of customers remain in the first place for us.

Style stage

Defining a room style
Collages with style selection by room
Ceiling plans and sections with dimensions, types of materials, reference to structures
Decorative unfolding of walls with tile layout
List of areas and types of finishing materials
List of equipment (electrical points, plumbing, furniture, decor items and
interior)
View images of rooms in perspective in the ArchiCad program

Studio "Design-Moskva" is ready to implement your ideas and implement the most non-standard ideas!

Order a project

To attract a client with impeccable service, so that you want to return to the hotel again, you need to do something special - to create a unique atmosphere. The interior decoration of the hotel depends on the wishes of the customer and the requests of the guests, on which the business is oriented.

Decorating.

Selection of paintings, drawings, wall graphics
Selection of sculptures
Selection of cutlery, sets and tablecloths
Selection of bed linen
Selection of accessories for various premises

Architectural supervision is a set of measures carried out to ensure that the artistic solutions of the object being built into operation comply with the solutions provided for in the design project approved by the Customer.

Design of the entrance group and reception.

Hotel reception, Art Deco style

Hotel entrance lobby

Receptionist style eclectic

Eco style hotel entrance lobby

The architects and designers of our studio have extensive experience in the design of hotels and hotels. Many styles - from elegant K lassics and luxurious A rt deco, before the modern reading of the style Vintage can be successfully implemented in the design and decoration of hotel rooms.

The author's look at familiar elements is the best solution in creating an individual style.
The status of the hotel's interior will be emphasized by materials and details - furniture and decoration made of precious woods, noble shine of bronze and silver, high-quality soft leather, intricate marble pattern, flowing silk curtains.

Our strengths are experienced architects and designers who develop unique projects for hotels and hotels. We are ready to provide our clients:

Consulting on any specialized issues;
Design and design of bars, restaurants, lobby bars in the hotel / hotel;
Design and design of rooms, public areas;
Completing projects with furniture, finishing materials, interior items, lighting fixtures;
Full project support.

The key stages in the design of hotels and hotels are the creation of an architectural project and zoning of the premises. It is also necessary to develop a design project for interiors, including:

entrance area
lobby
reception
a restaurant
room fund
conference rooms
corridors and elevator halls, etc.

In the design of hotels, it is important to take into account the combination of the housing stock, the entrance area of the reception, restaurants and cafes, and infrastructure maintenance.

In the old days, stone flour shops were located at the corner of Mokhovaya and Tverskaya streets, in the mid-1890s there was a tavern "Balaklava". A few years later, ownership passed to the Varvarinsky joint-stock company of homeowners, which in 1900 began the construction of a first-class hotel designed by the architect Alexander Vasilyevich Ivanov, an architect who by that time was already well-known in Moscow, who built the office building of the Morozovs' Tver Manufactory Partnership on Varvarka and the house of an insurance company "Russia" on Lubyanskaya Square. The hotel, which received the name "National", received its first guests in 1903.

The facades of the building were made in a mixture of styles, a combination of neo-Renaissance with neoclassicism and modernist details, which gives them an impression of stylistic ambiguity, but at the same time conveys an individual character. The architect used natural stone and ceramic tiles, stucco and smooth plaster for decoration. The corner attic was decorated with a majolica panel "Apollo and the Muses" made at the Moscow Butyrka Ceramic Factory of S. I. Mamontov "Abramtsevo" by the artists S. V. Chekhonin and A. Ya. Golovin. Soon after the revolution, it was replaced by another panel, on an industrial theme, made according to sketches by F. I. Rerberg at the same Abramtsevo plant.

The interiors were striking in their luxury and splendor: marble staircases, mosaic floors, huge stained-glass windows, figures of Atlanteans near the entrance to the elevators, painted ceilings. Furniture in the rooms made by special order from precious woods. A whole range of modern technical innovations: electric elevators, telephones, steam heating system, manufactured at the San Galli foundry. Many of the rooms were equipped with en suite bathrooms and water closets.

Hotel accommodation was not cheap (up to 25 rubles per day ) , but there was no end to the guests - rich industrialists, merchants, foreign diplomats willingly stayed here. In 1913, the uncle of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, lived in "National". Prominent figures of Russian culture did not shy away from the luxurious hotel - in different time lived here, Ivan Bunin, Anna Pavlova, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The hotel's fate changed dramatically after 1917. During the October battles, the building was damaged by shelling. And immediately after the transfer of the capital from Petrograd to Moscow, members of the Soviet government settled here for some time before moving to the Kremlin in a "modest" bourgeois setting: Lenin, Sverdlov, Trotsky, Dzerzhinsky. For many years the hotel became the "1st House of Soviets" - a hostel for the functionaries of the new government. The hotel status was returned to her only in the early 1930s. At the same time, its name was finally fixed - "National" (before the revolution, both names were used), apparently more in line with the spirit of the times. The building was overhauled. At the same time, its appearance was partially changed: the lower floors were repainted to look like granite, the oak window frames were replaced with aluminum ones. The hotel furnishings were supplemented with furniture from Anichkov and Tsarskoye Selo palaces.

In 1974, the ceilings of two halls on the second floor were decorated with painted plafonds made by the artist I. V. Nikolaev in the classical style of painting the ceilings of the school of old masters, but at the same time with elements of the newer decorative school of V. A. Favorsky. In the details and ornaments of the plafonds, features of the aesthetics of the World of Art are noticeable, which underlines the connection with the works of the famous artists of the Benoit-Lanceray family, from which the author himself comes.

In the same 1974 "National" was included in the list of protected by the state monuments of history and culture.

Speaking of the hotel, one cannot fail to mention the famous hotel restaurant - for many years it was a favorite place for a pleasant pastime among the intelligentsia and Soviet bohemia.

Despite repeated renovations in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, attempts to modernize the hotel, it was in disrepair. And at the end of the 1980s, its comprehensive reconstruction and restoration began. According to the results of the competition, the general contractor, the Austrian firm "Rogner", was selected, and the architects from Austria V. Hoffelner and E. Survillo became the authors of the restoration project. On the Russian side, specialists from the Moscow administration for the design of public buildings and structures, Mosproekt-2, took part in the restoration of the National. All works were completed in 1995, and the renovated hotel reopened its doors to its guests. And she has seen a lot of them in her lifetime, including the famous ones. Presidents have stayed here too different countries, and members of royal families, and famous cultural figures from all over the world.

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