Park Hotel Hyderabad | SOM | Hyderabad, India | Building Types Study | Architectural R...

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Photo Pallon Daruwala

Park Hotel Hyderabad

SOM
Hyderabad, India

A trapezoidal structure wrapped in a jewellike screen offers an adventurous yet serene ambience.
By Uttiya Bhattacharya
While India's Park Hotel group has forged a reputation over its 44-year history for boutique luxury establishments, its brazenly
sculptural, 270-room hotel in Hyderabad is the first it has built from scratch. Priya Paul, who heads the hotel group as part of her
family's conglomerate, Apeejay Surrendra, wanted to make a bold architectural statement in the center of the city on a tight site (2
acres) that exemplifies the dualities of India: It is across the street from a busy, noisy railroad station, but overlooks the serene
Hussain Sagar Lake.
SLIDE SHOW

DRAWINGS

PEOPLE & PRODUCTS

Curtain wall: Permasteelisa (India)

Although Hyderabad, in southern India, is known as a software development hub,

Paul felt the design should express the city's centuries-old tradition of crafted
jewelry associated with its pre-Independence Nizam rulers. She considers jewelry
making the essence of Hyderabad, says Roger Duffy, of Skidmore Owings &
Merrill (SOM)'s New York office, the architect for the hotel. Similarly, the client
suggested to the architects that the building's opulent interiors reflect the
contributions of local artisans and artists.
Paul turned to SOM to take on this assignment, notes Duffy, because she was
convinced that American architects would make sure the project would be
constructed with more attention to quality than has often been the case with newly
built Indian hotels.

Glazing and skylights: CSG Architectural

Glass

In response to zoning and height restrictions, SOM designed a trapezoidal volume,

placing the six floors of guest rooms on top of a three-story podium containing
shops and offices. (Parking is located in three levels below grade.) The architects
then carved out the center of the trapezoid so that the third level of the podium
would have an open courtyardfor a veranda and swimming pooland be
surrounded by the main lobby, lounges, and restaurants. Three sides of the
trapezoidal volume wrap around the courtyard, protecting it from strong winds in the
monsoon season, but allowing its veranda to benefit from lake breezes in hot weather. The infinity-edge swimming pool atop the
podium takes advantage of the height: Not only are visitors shielded from the dust and noise of the railroad station, but the pool
seems to stretch eternally into the lake and the city beyond.
All Glass Entrance Doors: Ariam Door
Controls - Dorma India Pvt. Ltd.

The building's reinforced-concrete frame structure is supplemented with two long-span steel trusses to afford column-free spaces
one in the banquet hall; the other to enable a block of rooms to cantilever over the podium where it shields parts of the open areas
from the sun.
To reduce solar gain and glare, and to address Paul's wishes, SOM employed a layering approach and looked at the local
metalworking tradition for the design of a jewellike exterior skin of perforated and embossed aluminum. The metal-panel screen is
installed in front of laminated, insulated, low-E glass windows with acoustical properties. The skin not only affords privacy for the
guest rooms, but the architects shaped its openings to allow occupants to have spectacular views of the city and the lake. By night,
LED panels inserted between the glass and the screens illuminate the building with vibrant hues.

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The presence of the courtyard and veranda allude to India's colonial architecture; the restaurants, bars, clubs, spa, and guest rooms
represent a striking mix of efforts by international design firms, including Conran & Partners, and local artisans who created such
items as the glittering chandeliers and luminescent furnishings. SOM concentrated on the interior design of the street-level and main
lobbies, banquet halls, shops, and the podium's lounges, veranda, and swimming pool.
The orientation of the building on its site and the design of the metal screen have reduced energy needs of the hotel by almost 30
percent, say the architects. Because of such strategies, in late 2010, the Park Hotel became India's first LEED Gold certified hotel.
To come into the hotel is to leave behind the bustle, sprawl, and dust of the city and enter a magical, beautifully crafted space. The
nuanced gestures of the design connect the inside to the outside, the building to the city, and the site to the lake. The translation of
the diverse challenges of energy savings, climate, privacy, and symbolic allusions to place have resulted in a singular work. The
hotel's success in responding to its environmental and cultural contexts can be attested by the reaction of the client: Paul has
enlisted SOM to design another Park Hotel in Calcutta.
Uttiya Bhattacharya is a founding partner of Design-Business Collaborative [D+B]c and is based in New Delhi.
Total construction cost: Withheld
Completion Date: April 2010
Size: 531,550 square feet
Architect:
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
14 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
212-298-9300
Fax: 212.298.9461
December 2011

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Photo Pallon Daruwala

Park Hotel Hyderabad

SOM
Hyderabad, India

People

Products

Owner: Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels

Structural system

Architect

Concrete Structural Framing 9 meter column bay,

Steel Vierendeel Trusses at level 3 (over Banquet rooms) and
level 8 cantilever

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

14 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
212-298-9300
Fax: 212.298.9461
Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Roger Duffy, FAIA, Design Partner
Peter Magill, AIA, Managing Partner
Stephen Apking, FAIA, Interior Design Partner
Mark Igou, AIA, Managing Director
Thomas Behr, AIA, Project Manager
Peter Lefkovits, AIA, Senior Design Architect
Eric Van Epps, AIA, Senior Technical Architect
Kwong Yu, AIA, Technical Architect
James Kraus, AIA, Technical Architect
Madeleine Deschamps, Senior Materials Coordinator
Architect of record:

Exterior cladding

Metal Panels: Alpolic Aluminum Composite Panels (Spandrel

panels at Curtain Wall)
Metal/glass curtain wall:
Permasteelisa (India), Pvt. Ltd. (Curtain Wall, Perforated and
Embossed Metal Screens)
Contact: Muthukrishnan. G, Project Manager
email: muthukrishnan.g@permasteelisagroup.com,
mobile: 91 773 8345 627
Global Tech Design Pte. Ltd. (Part of Permasteelisa Group Specialist Sub- Contractor for the All Glass Connector on
Level 3)
Curtain wall: Permasteelisa (India), Pvt. Ltd.

Local Architect/ Architect of Record

Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels

Roofing

Interior designer: SOM executed the lobbies, public spaces,

retail, veranda, and banquet halls in collaboration with local
artists and craftsmen. Many other local and international
interior designers were involved with the project.

Glazing

Engineer(s)

Structural Engineering:
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
14 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
Charles Besjak, SE, PE, Director
Preetam Biswas, PE

Elastomeric: Fosroc Chemical (India) Pvt. Ltd. (need to verify)

Glass: Manufacturer of the glazing within the curtain wall:

CSG Architectural Glass (China Southern Glass)
Skylights: Manufacturer of the glazing at the All Glass
Connector on level 3, CSG Architectural Glass (China
Southern Glass)
Insulated-panel or plastic glazing:
Manufacturer of swimming pool acrylic skylight & window:
Reynolds Polymer Technology, Inc.
Contact: Chris Trevathan, National Sales Manager
email: ctrevathan@reynoldspolymer.com

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Local Structural Engineer:

Semac Private Limited
B-6/23 Shopping Centre, Safdarjung Enclave,
New Delhi 110 029

Celeste Backest, Project Sales /Contract Administrator

email: cbackest@reynoldspolymer.com
#: 970.241.4700

Local MEP Engineer:

Spectral
A-197, Sector - 63
Noida

Local Sub-contractor/ Installer:

Matsyam Aquatic Garden
Contact: Mahesh Mohatta, Technical Director
email: mahesh@matsyam.com
Mobile- +91 9825066051

Consultant(s)

Doors

Lighting:
ILD
4222 Glencoe Avenue
Suite 200
Marina del Ray, CA 90292
United States

All Glass Entrance Doors: Ariam Door Controls - Dorma India

Pvt. Ltd.

Acoustical:
Cerami & Associates, Inc.
404 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
P 212 370 1776
F 212 370 1736

Circular sliding doors: Ariam Door Controls - Dorma India Pvt.

Ltd.
Interior finishes

Solid surfacing: DuPont Corian : Street Lobby reception desk

and feature wall
Carpet:
Hotel Lobby area carpets: Tai Ping SOM design and custom
wool carpets

Other:
Traffic Consultant:
Engg & Planning Consultant
241 Somdutt Chamber II, Bhikaji Cama Place
New Delhi 110 066

Banquet Hall: Tai Ping SOM design and custom wool carpets

Geotechnical Engineer:
Nagadi Consultants
60 Manovikas Nagar, Opp NIMH
Secunderabad 9

Lighting

Energy Simulation:
Environmental Design Solutions
657 A/C, VASANT KUNJ
New Delhi, India
Civil Contractor:
Consolidated Construction Consortium Ltd. (CCC)
B-16, Vikrampuri Colony, Vikrampuri
Secunderabad - 500 009

Add any additional building components or special

equipment that made a significant contribution to this project:

Furnishings

Fixed seating: In Hotel Lobby: Moroso

Exterior: OSRAM LED Lighting Fixture between perforated

and embossed metal screens and curtain wall Light fixture
installed by Permasteelisa (India)

Perforated and embossed metal screens over a highperformance glazing & curtain wall system (fabricated and
installed by Permasteelisa)

Photographer(s)

Robert Polidori, Robert Polidori, 212-229-0761

Pallon Daruwala, Pallon Daruwala, Mobile: +91 98803
99333, pallonimages@gmail.com
CAD system, project management, or other software used:

AutoCAD
Rhino
3DMAX
Digital Project
Ecotect
IES
Radiance

December 2011

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