L'art de Vivre

Catering giant DO & Co rocks Vienna with an office-to-hotel conversion that is bringing a new market to the heart of the city

by Mary Scoviak, Contributing Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 3/1/2007

The glass-fronted, geometric building in St. Stephansplatz that began its life as cold, contemporary office space is now one of the hottest hotels in Vienna. It took locally based catering/entertainment giant DO & CO to see the high touch, residential heart beneath the high tech, corporate façade. First came the transformation of the sixth and seventh floors into restaurant/bar destinations that have become magnets for urban trendsetters. Sensing pent-up demand for a 24-hour experience, DO & CO reached beyond its business model to re-invent the city center building as the 5-star, 41-room DO & CO Hotel.

DO & CO founder Attila Dogudan had no design brief per se. However, he made it clear that the first DO & CO hotel was to be unlike anything Vienna had on offer. Dogudan challenged Viennese architect Hans Hollein and Amsterdam interior architect FG stijl to create an “urban suite” that would serve as a luxurious, contemporary pied à terre for the domestic and international travelers who will swell Vienna’s overnight tourism arrivals by more than 7% this year.

An “In” Box

Working within the office shell made fresh thinking mandatory. Given the predominantly glass and metal skin of the building, the typical “big statement” reception lobby would have looked institutional. The design team warmed up the welcome by combining the reception area with the lounge and Onyx bar. When the elevator doors open, the first thing guests see is a crackling fire framed by a shining black glass wall not a cavernous marble-clad box. “Guests arrive directly into the ‘heartbeat’ of the hotel and experience the positive energy,” says Gerard Glintmeijer co-founder of FG stijl along with Colin Finnegan.

Positioning the Onyx bar adjacent to the reception area boosts the public space’s revenue potential and infuses the space with a hip, young vibe. Design should make entrances to bar and restaurants focal points. Tactile padded leather columns and eye-catching “piccalilli” suede panelling make the bar hard to ignore.

Elements chosen for the interior are all about maximizing stay and spend and increasing frequency.  Playing off the “comfort” theme, the design team mixed elements that invite guests to seek out the Onyx bar for entertainment and relaxation. FG stijl deconstructed traditional comfort elements such as wing chairs by giving them a low-slung profile and adding a shot of elegant color with a crimson, floral-patterned velvet upholstery. They modernized traditional club chairs by covering them in pistachio leather. Any bar should offer a menu of destinations. Guests in the Onyx bar can shelter in the wing chairs, socialize in the central U-shaped arrangement of white leather sofas or have a quiet tête-à-tête on the flirty grey-green, leather two-seaters with chrome frames.

In this era of personalization, “humanization” is essential to the residential/customized experience most travellers demand. An open plan can make that difficult. To keep the Onyx bar intimate without subtracting the drama of its 19.6-ft. (6 m.) window overlooking St. Stephan’s Cathedral, the design team extended the mezzanine of the restaurant over the bar. The result expanded the restaurant area and preserved the escapist atmosphere of the bar.

New Menu For Restaurant Design

A half-round staircase lures guests to the seventh-floor restaurant. White linen looks out of place in this kind of high tech space. To generate more of a high touch ambience, FG Stijl framed this eclectic restaurant with dark teak wood and rich purples. Stone-grey table linen and white leather chairs put the focus where it should be: on the food and the guests’ dining experience.  

Design should help a restaurant merchandise its concept and menu. A wok station and sushi tower market the international scope of the culinary concept. Glass display cases in the restaurant are a witty reminder of Vienna’s “jewel box,” retail character.  The topmost glass box capitalizes on the restaurant’s vertical reach to open up additional revenue streams from three private event spaces reached by separate elevator.

From Challenge To Opportunity

Transforming offices into guestrooms is one of the most daunting aspects of office-to-hotel conversions. In the case of the DO &CO project, the pie-shaped spaces available added a new kind of challenge. “We just looked at the guestrooms as slices of the local chocolate torte,” says Glintmeijer.

Entering at the thin end of the split-level wedge, guests are immediately drawn to the window and the view of the historic square. Putting architectural elements to work as design factors makes rooms look more modern and spacious. FG stijl placed a padded seat under the deep window ledge for an interesting alternative to the usual seating choices. A Flexform sofa nestles into a corner to lessen the “square box” feel typical of hotel rooms. The flat-screen television is recessed into the wall, alongside a display of spirits, liquors and chocolates that recall the themes of the restaurant and bar. All of this high-style form has function, including the wheeled tables that make room attendants’ jobs easier.

Guestrooms require a unique identity to be memorable. Mixing and matching elements continues to be a hot trend. The hand-work “silver effect” coffee trays that serve as table tops and the soft kilims that work as bedspreads are deliberate references to Dugodan’s Turkish heritage on his father’s side. They also have to respond the guest’s varying moods with amenities from dimmable lighting throughout to solid teak shutters that can be folded back to open up the space or closed for privacy.

To optimize impact, the same tone has to be carried through all design elements—from the architecture and interiors and to graphics and uniforms. For the DO & CO staff, that means a chic, sophisticated look that matches the individualized approach to service. “It is people who make a place a place to be,” says Glintmeijer.