Bankhotel
BANKHOTEL is located in the reconstructed historic building of the former Austro-Hungarian Bank. The idea is preserving the authenticity and planning structure of the building. Valuable elements have been restored and combined delicately with contemporary design. The design of the hotel's public spaces is based on its former banking identity.
In the structure of the hotel, the following public areas are positioned: on the first floor – the Safe restaurant, on the seventh floor – the Reserve wine bar with a terrace, which offers a magnificent view of the historical Lviv city center; a spa, a fitness room, a beauty salon, and the Satirikon night art-bar with an independent entrance from Lepkoho Street.
The hotel has 101 guest rooms, including one presidential suite, one Ambassador suite, 6 suites, 57 deluxe rooms (22 doubles, 35 twin rooms), 35 standard rooms (5 singles, 27 doubles, 3 twin rooms), and one room for wheelchair users. As the first floor is above the level of the sidewalk, there is a wheelchair lift by the hotel’s main entrance.
One of the key planning problem was to find a way to combine the grand stairs of the bank and the staircases of the residential area at the first floor. This only became possible through including the courtyard into the overall planning structure, burying it 1.85 m into the ground and covering it at the level of the first floor.
At the heart of our planning solutions is the idea of the fullest possible preservation of the building’s authenticity. The lobby with its marble staircase and stained-glass windows, the tile flooring of the first floor lobby and the second floor hall. The façades have been preserved and restored.
The location of the operating room in the structure of the former Bank was viewed as the opportunity to design a 300-seat congress hall, which can be converted into 8 separate conference rooms by sliding partitions.
The four-story building was made of brick. Its façade is decorated by rustication and pilasters; it ends with a broad parapet with a balustrade. On the façade, the lower floors are divided by a frieze that is filled with reliefs, composed by the sculptor Julian Beltowski.
The building’s authentic roof was destroyed, thus in order to replicate its initial shape, the architects used copies of original blueprints they found in archives. It was possible to build three additional stories of hotel rooms in the attic’s volume upon its restoration. This significantly increased the total amount of guest rooms.
Refrigerating machines with heat pump function are installed, as well as recirculation and recuperation of air heat.