Novotel Bucharest - Hotel Designs Review

Bucharest, the capital of one of the latest countries to join the European Union, is in the throes of the establishment of a democratic capitalist economy. It is years behind the other countries of East Europe I have visited, and it shows. Here for the first time I was conscious of real poverty - children without shoes, unmade pavements and many decaying buildings

However there are many signs of change. Coming in from the airport there were major road works underway. The route was lined with new car dealerships, and 4x4's were common - Range Rovers, VW Touaregs, and Mercedes ML's abounded, bought probably not just as status symbols but also to cope with the conditions of the road surfaces - much as in London people buy 4x4's to deal with road humps and potholes in our poor roads.

Shrouded in December fog, the exterior of the Novotel Bucharest reproduces the facade of the pre-war Opera house whose site it occupies

The use of the reconstructed facade of the original Opera House may seem incongruous, but creates a classic entry portico for the hotel as well as assuaging local sensitivities. The glazed box of the reception and conference areas allows the hotel to work like a piece of street theatre, giving passing pedestrians the opportunity to be voyeurs of the activities within, and helping draw in local trade to the bar and restaurant areas

"much of the Communist-era nomenklatura remain embedded in Romania's structures of power"
Report in the International Herald Tribune, 18th December 2006

The biggest sign of change however is in the growing activity in the hotel market. Rezidor Hotels, often amongst the first into Eastern European cities, have a large Radisson under construction, the bunker-like ugliness of the Intercontinental has had a major refurbishment, and the ruins of the old Opera House, derelict since the USAAF bombed it in WW2, have been transformed into the latest addition to Accor's growing number of hotels in Eastern Europe, the Novotel Bucharest.

Accor's new model Novotel is being implemented across the chain (see our previous Review of the Novotel Greenwich) and it has been well implemented here in the standard bedrooms.

The designers have also created a well designed set of public areas driven by the unusual architecture. The site development was controversial and Accor have paid tribute to the past with a frontage that marries a modern architectural block to a pediment and columned frontage that is built on the planform of the original Opera House.

The main bulk of the hotel is behind the colonnade and its glass form allows the interior scene to be seen as a stage set from the street, giving another meaning to the interior designers view of an hotel as a piece of theatre.

Stairs fromthe conference floor go into the lobby on both sides

Staircase down to the lobby from the conference floor - a second staircase decants delegates into the bar and coffee shop

Novotel Bucharest

Novotel Bucharest, March 2007