The Park Hotel in Hyderabad designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill opens

New Building Combines High‐Performance Design with Local Culture

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM), the New York‐based architectural firm, has recently completed The Park Hotel Hyderabad, the flagship hotel for The Park Hotel Group. This 531,550‐ square‐foot, 270‐room hotel infuses a modern, sustainable design with the local craft traditions, and is influenced by the region’s reputation as a center for the design and production of gemstones and textiles.

Exterior view / east elevation at dusk - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

• Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
• Location: Hyderabad, India
• Year: 2011

Overall exterior, daytime - © Bharath Ramamrutham / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Roger Duffy, SOM’s Partner in Charge of the project, says, “This building signals our commitment to creating a design that simultaneously felt at home among the exuberant vernacular architecture of Hyderabad, while simultaneously incorporating the latest sustainable strategies and technologies.” The project is distinctive for its profound implementation of sustainable design strategies, with special attention paid to the building’s relationship to its site, daylighting and views. Solar studies influenced the site orientation and building massing, with program spaces concentrated in the north and south facades, and service circulation on the west to reduce heat gain. The hotel rooms are raised to allow more expansive views, situated on top of a podium comprised of retail spaces, art galleries, and banquet halls open to guests and visitors.

Daytime view of east elevation - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Mark Igou, Managing Director for the project and a leader in developing SOM’s presence in India, explains, “This project is the result of SOM’s collective effort to understand and address the Indian market’s needs and opportunities and is an affirmation of our commitment to our clients in the region.” The building’s three sides wrap around an elevated central courtyard that can be accessed from the hotel lobby. This flexible outdoor area is protected from strong winds, and serves as an extension of the restaurants inside. It features a private dining court and a swimming pool, which can be seen from the adjacent areas and the nightclub below, with moving patterns formed by light passing through the pool’s water. The outdoor courtyard was designed to be a multifunctional space accessible from the lobby, restaurants, and bar that surround it. Elevated three stories above ground, this veranda provides views to Hussain Sagar Lake and the city.

View of guest drop-off area - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The facade provides a range of transparency according to the needs of the spaces inside. Perforated and embossed metal screens over a high‐performance glazing system give privacy to the hotel rooms while allowing diffused daylight to enter the interior spaces, and provides acoustic insulation from trains passing nearby. The opaque areas of the cladding shield the hotel’s service areas from public view. The shape of the facade’s openings, as well as the three‐dimensional patterns on the screens themselves, were inspired by the forms of the metalwork of the crown jewels of the Nizam, the city’s historic ruling dynasty.

Exterior view of south / east elevation - © Bharath Ramamrutham / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

SOM designed many of the project’s interior spaces, including the lobbies, the lobby lounge, retail, and banquet halls. The interiors continue the jewelry concept – with silver, gold and gem tones throughout. Many of the interior surfaces, including the mosaics, reflect local designs, which were implemented by artists and craftsmen from the region.

East facade Detail - © Bharath Ramamrutham / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Priya Paul, Chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels which owns The Park brand, describes The Park, Hyderabad as “a Modern Indian Palace, something refreshing and different that speaks to the aspirations of India today.”

Facade detail, south and east elevations - © Bharath Ramamrutham / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Collaboration with manufacturers, fabricators, and researchers played a vital role in developing this lowenergy prototype building, with data gathered in collaboration with the Stevens Institute of Technology’s Product Architecture Lab in Hoboken, New Jersey. As a result, the design team was able to reduce the building’s energy use by twenty percent. In addition, an on‐site water treatment facility and sewage treatment plant process both gray water for reuse and waste water for release back into the city’s sewer system.

View of glass-enclosed walkway, linking lobby with guest elevator bank - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The project achieved the first LEED Gold certification for a hotel in India, and has been awarded Best New Hospitality Project of 2010 from Cityscape India. It also served as a case study for using a collaborative process to achieve an environmentally efficient design in Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal in 2009, and was the subject of a white paper written by the design team on the high‐performance curtain wall system.

Veranda, with view into hotel lobby - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Infinity pool looking north, dusk - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Veranda, looking east - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Infinity pool, daytime - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Infinity pool, with view to the east - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Hotel street lobby - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Ruby Lounge - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Detail of Ruby Lounge - © Pallon Daruwala / courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Level 3 illustrated floor plan - © Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Typical guest room floor plan - © Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Executive level floor plan - © Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Tags: Hyderabad, India

Category: Hotel

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