Hot Opening: Four Seasons Hotel, Doha

By Staff -- HOTELS Magazine, 4/1/2007

The 18-story, 232-room Four Seasons Hotel Doha, crowned by domes of intricate latticework, is a focal point of Doha’s West Bay Complex and a prominent landmark on the city’s waterfront. The architectural concept of the West Bay Complex is based on the ancient Al Hambra Complex in Granada, Spain.

Opened in late April, the Four Seasons Hotel Doha is a beacon in Islamic architecture. Traditional Islamic motifs are the inspiration for the hotel’s highly crafted façade, featuring wind towers, columns and geometric patterns. Details on the domes, openings and windows hint of Moorish influences.

Guests enter through hand-carved wooden doors into a soaring atrium with floor-to-ceiling windows opening to the Arabian Gulf. Beneath a latticework dome modeled after the one that tops the building is a grand staircase that sweeps up to the meeting room level, and spirals down to the centerpiece fountain amid the hotel’s seven dining experiences.

The color palette includes marble in soft grays and pinks to complement the blue sea, while locally manufactured furniture is swathed in fabrics of yellow, blues and greens. The look extends into other public areas of the hotel as well as its guestrooms and suites.

Located directly on the beach, the hotel also features a three-level grotto pool surrounded by cabanas and cooling palm trees.