The Happier the Hotelier, The Happier the Guest
That’s a good idea: Open an architectural monument for a stay! Then you can enjoy the look and feel of the creation of the architect.
The Davidson House in Buffalo, US, a design of America’s foremost Arts and Craft movement architect Frank Lloyd Wright is open for a stay with a minimum of 2 nights.
I am glad I don’t have to fly a lot and certainly not in an airplane bathroom, but the USA is world famous for its frivolous litigating and this is just another example in my opinion:
According to Associated Press, via MSNBC, a New York citizen is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because a pilot ordered him to give up his seat and to spend part of his flight on the the toilet for more than three hours on a 5 hours flight from San Diego to New York. The man was traveling on a “buddy pass”, a voucher that airline employees can give to relatives and friends. Probably not the most expensive ticket.
I am curious whether the guy will succeed and also whether the Airline employee will remain his friend and/or keep his/hers job…..
As a chair aficionado, – look at my Chair Blog and Chairblog | Tumblr where I collect some design chairs and some unusual seats and had the ones shown here -, I am sure the flight was not very comfortable, but also not worth this prize money.
Finally I am curious what amount Pam Babcock, the woman, who was glued to her friend’s toilet, see also Discover Magazine for two years, is going to claim. If you apply the claim formula of the New Yorker’s 3 hours glued to his airplane toilet seat and calculate her hours glued to hers, she may be claiming over US $ 4 Bio!
After fighting with her boyfriend, 35-year old Pam Babcock locked herself in the bathroom of the couple’s mobile home and refused to leave… for the next two years. When her boyfriend, Kory McFarren, finally called the authorities to report that “there was something wrong with his girlfriend,†they found that she was physically stuck to the toilet seat—her skin had not only attached but, according to the initial reports, appeared to have “grown around†the seat. The cops eventually pried the seat off the toilet with a crowbar and sent the woman—seat attached—to a hospital in Wichita, where they were finally separated.
Updates
The News is spreading now: Here is the Video News Clip:
Where
Located on Death Strip, the piece of land along the former Berlin Wall where people used to be shot and now a waste land dedicated to sculptures, French artist Etienne Boulanger formed a one room hotel between billboards. It definitely is a Room without a View. A night costs a mere Euro 20.- (approx US $ 30.-). It is on view (or use) up to March 2008.
It is accessible by ladder and is a fully equipped as a two star hotel room.
Philip Horst, one of five artists running the Sculpture Park Berlin Centrum, said: “Boulanger’s idea was to make use of an economic cycle and use the rented out advertising spaces to finance the hotel.”
Reservations
Via Etienne Boulanger‘s website
The ITN Video on Youtube:
Via
Vacant ready and ITN UK
Thanks to the UK Independent we now know their five best Factory Hotels:
The Room Mate history is this:
3 friends, Kike, Carlos and Gorka, having drinks mentioned how there weren’t any hotels in Madrid that would satisfy their needs and those of their friends. So they started wondering what kind of hotel they’d like to stay at if they were going to a city like Madrid or Paris.
They came to the conclusion that there should be one in the heart of the center, with an original decoration and a reasonable price, not saturated with extras and services that are seldom used and with a natural personal feel. Because the only thing you really need while “exploring†a city is a good breakfast.
So they opened their first hotel, Room Mate Mario in the center of Madrid next to the “Teatro Realâ€.Impressed by the enthusiasm showed by their clients and the media they decided to start a chain of hotels and urban apartments.
Apparently there are four friends now operating Room Mate Hotels:
Enrique Sarasola comes from a family constantly linked to the large business world. Carlos Marrero derives from a restoration family business in the Canary Islands. Eduardo Sanzol represents the Sanzol family, important promoters from Navarra, and Gorka Atorrasagasti. who is from Donostia (Basque Country) and has directed entertainment/nightlife events for years.
The Independent:
Housed in an early 20th-century shoe factory, it has 34 bright, contemporary bedrooms overlooking the Plaza Santa Ana, and is a stroll away from the Prado and Reina SofÃa.
The funny thing with this old logo is that it denominates the old sponge export business as N.V. Verveniotis which is a typical Dutch language abbreviation for publicly held a limited liability corporation as they still exist in The Netherlands and in Belgium.
The Independent:
Situated on the idyllic, car-free island of Hydra, the Bratsera began life in 1860 as a sponge factory, cleaning and pressing sponge from the Mediterranean for shipping. But as plastic became cheaper, the industry went into decline, and current proprietor Christine Davros decided to diversify into hospitality. After an extensive renovation, the Bratsera emerged as a chic boutique hotel, with 28 individually designed rooms, an outdoor pool and a wisteria-draped courtyard restaurant serving Greek cuisine.
Nhow Milano belonging to NH Hoteles.
The Independent:
The work of designer Matteo Thun and architect Daniele Beretta, the Nhow Hotel has come a long way from its beginnings as the General Electric powerplant on Milan’s Via Tortona. Built in 1935 and restored last year, the hotel is in the heart of the trendy “Zona Tortona” – the canal-side district that was once a centre of heavy industry and is now an artists’ quarter, home to studios, galleries, bars and shops.
The Independent:
Rising out of the mist on a hilltop in Sri Lanka’s highlands, the imposing Tea Factory Hotel once produced some of the finest pure Ceylon tea in the world. Built during the British Raj in the 1930s, it was later rescued from dereliction in 1992 and converted into a luxury hotel. The 57 colonial-style rooms are housed in the old withering lofts, with views over the tea hills; a bar occupies the one-time packing area; a restored railway carriage is now a restaurant.
The Independent:
One of Tasmania’s most famous residents, the entrepreneurial Henry Jones went from label-paster to head of his own jam-making empire – and the largest private company in the world at the time. His IXL jam works – a row of Georgian buildings lining Hobart’s waterfront – now comprise an award-winning hotel, bar and restaurant, as well as a regularly changing display of more than 250 works of art. Designed by local architect Robert Morris-Nunn, the 50 open-plan rooms are gritty and modern, echoing Hobart’s colonial trading links with Indo-China (ottomans and silk eiderdowns) as well as the factory’s past (exposed brickwork, refurbished machinery and wood panelling).
Oops another five for my want to visit list……
This week sees the opening of the former Boston Charles Street Jail reborn as The Liberty Hotel after an US $ 150 mio acquisition / refurbishment of 5 years.
The luxury hotel features 300 rooms (i.e. a US $ 500,000 investment per room) of which 10 lavish suites. Not all rooms are crammed in the old Jail, rest assured. There is a modern high rise next to the old Jail dating back from 1851.
The Jail House past comes back in a specially commissioned mosaic by Coral Bourgeois featuring multi- textured tiles depicting historical scenes from penitentiaries and true life crimes, in “do not disturb†door hangers wisely worded Solitary and Alibi, and in the first floor bar that is housed within the jail’s former Drunk Tank.
Ah, they have Molton Brown bathroom amenities, which reminds me I have a rant in my sleeve about Molton Brown.
Via Hotels of The Rich and Famous Blog
