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The InterContinental Vienna is a hotel in Vienna, centrally located adjacent to the Stadtpark. It has a total of 458 guest rooms and suites and conference facilities with 1,200 m2.
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History
InterContinental Vienna, which opened in 1964, was the first hotel belonging to an international chain to open in Vienna. With more than 500 rooms, the “Inter-Continental Vienna”, as it was originally named, was not only one of the world’s largest hotels, but also one of the most modern. Inter-Continental Vienna brought a completely new type of hotel with novel features to the Austrian capital: upon completion there were 504 rooms on 12 levels (until its destruction in 1945, Hotel Metropol, with 360 rooms, was by far Vienna’s largest hotel). Thanks to its innovative program, the hotel became a new focal point of Viennese social life. The scale of the project to be implemented and the constraints of the building site called for a state-of-the-art construction method; the internal supply management, as well as the logistics of the day-to-day operation necessitated an intelligent architectural solution. In order to guarantee the international clientele’s comfort and satisfaction, particular attention was paid not only to the design of the elegant furnishings, but also to technical innovations.
When the Inter-Continental Vienna opened, it was the twenty-third hotel to become part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, a hotel chain founded by the airline Pan American World Airways.
Architecture and Construction Method
Holabird and Root, a renowned architecture firm that had played a major role in the development of the steel-frame skyscrapers in the United States, was commissioned to design the hotel, and in particular, to create a corporate identity for it. The Viennese architect Carl Appel was selected as contact architect.
In architectural terms, the functionalist approach and the dominance of an ordered aesthetic of the InterContinental Vienna are in keeping with the international modernism of the post-war decades. The building is considered an example of Functionalism in its original form. Carl Appel approached the design problem systematically; he studied the building’s future operational processes and logistics, and then he developed a framework and began the design process. The framework, the ordered vocabulary and the systematic floor plans are all reflected in the building’s appearance. Therefore, to this day, the InterContinental Vienna can still maintain its position as a representative of International Functionalism. The T-shaped building massing continues to work well, and no changes have been made to it. The ordered facade tells of the activities situated behind it: after fifty years, the twelve levels of guest rooms are still places to sleep and spend a short period of time. The hotel lobby, other meeting spaces and the ballroom must facilitate communication in a stately fashion and are therefore particularly generous in scale; Appel went all out here and achieved an ambiance specific to Vienna. The contextual adaptations, architectural arrangement of the facade, and the ultra-modern interior design also make the building typical of Vienna in the 1950s and 1960s – when progress and belief in the future were accompanied by respect for local flair and rejection of dogmatic Functionalism.
Client and Architect
At the time he was commissioned to prepare and supervise the construction of the InterContinental Hotel, Carl Appel was a well established architect with a large, thriving practice. His office produced a number of exemplary buildings in for the private and public sectors; these included office buildings, administrative buildings and apartment houses. Immediately following the Second World War, on account of their sound education and considerable experience, Appel and colleagues such as Erich Boltenstern, Max Fellerer and Oswald Haerdtl played a vital role in the reconstruction of the city – a task that demanded economical construction methods. In his work, Appel distinguished himself above all through his profound talent in tectonics and his willingness to employ new construction methods. The facade of the hotel’s reinforced-concrete structure, for example, is clad in Tyrolean sandstone and small-format, colourful mosaic stone; the casting process employed was an innovation that made the cladding particularly robust. Carl Appel’s background as a craftsman and his talent for detailing – an apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker was the basis for his education – served him well in his designs for the hotel’s interiors, particularly for the generously scaled lobby.
Space at a Premium
The InterContinental Vienna is 39 metres high, making it one of the city’s first skyscrapers. The original design of the hotel foresaw a height of 50 metres, but this was ruled out due to urban planning constraints: on the one hand, the famed view from the Belvedere Palace to Vienna’s historic centre would have been lost, and on the other hand, a building of that height would have impeded the air circulation in the neighbouring park, consequently, and endangered its trees. In cooperation with the city’s building authority, Appel took the context into account and reduced the building height. In order to accommodate the large program (504 hotel rooms, numerous rooms for social events, extensive building-services installations, and 240 parking spaces), he proposed a T-shaped floor plan and lowered the ceiling height to 2.45 metres. Because the hotel was fully air-conditioned from the start, the building authority approved the latter change. The reduced ceiling height was not merely an attempt to increase the hotel’s floor area, but may also be considered part of a tradition dating back to the early twentieth century, when Adolf Loos developed his Raumplan: the height of a space was determined based on its use.
Today
Over the years, the interiors of the InterContinental Vienna have been renovated and revised. The present classic design of the generously scaled lobby and conference facilities is the work of the interior architect Pierre Yves Rochon. The most recent renovation was carried out from October 2008 to June 2009: the British design firm Y2k created a new look for all twelve guest levels, the Club Lounge and the Presidential Suite – with its spectacular views of Vienna.
Literature
Sources for the topic 'architecture':