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Anyone familiar with Moscow’s Tsum department store knows all about its stellar range of luxury labels. It's been the preferred shopping address of the city's fashionista community. DLT department store - short for Dom Leningradskaya Torgovli or house of Leningrad trade - was initially founded in 1909, and back then it was one of the first of such establishments in all of Russia. it's housed in a beautiful art-deco style building with a voluminous atrium and expansive curved glass roof, designed by Russian architect Ernest Frantsevich Virrikh. The structure has withstood a turbulent history, and was heavily damaged in world war II. it has taken six years to renovate the building and to fully revive its former splendor. the renewed department store now boasts no less than 32,000 sqm. of retail and office space, spread over six floors. Aiming high to regain a leading position in St. Petersburg’s retail landscape, today's Dlt carries an equally broad range of luxury offerings as its sister store in Moscow. Imagination's Retail and Leisure, the global creative agency has been entrusted to realize the massive renovation project. Their aim was to develop a vocabulary of communication and style that will immediately place it at the very top level of quality and refinement. Each floor is designated for a particular category of goods. The ground floor features the extensive collections of accessories, jewelry, cosmetics and perfumes, and the first and second floors are home to the men’s and women’s apparel collections. Cassina Contract engineered and realized custom interiors for the complete fashion accessories, gifts, men’s and women’s floors as well as multi brand areas. Cassina supplied unique furniture and finishes for the project among many others, columns clad with fused white gold powder coated finish specially developed in the UK, display units in Corian with extra clear glass, fitting rooms covered with lacquered custom 3D sculpted panels. HBA is providing design services nearly to all world famous multinational hotel groups. What is your strategy that allows you to be so diverse in terms of design for each of them. Research is such an essential step in the creative process. Every destination is ripe with historical tales and treasures that can become inspiration for design concepts. So to us, creating a hotel’s style is like unra- velling a mystery. It’s about letting a place tell us what it needs to be - unearthing its heritage and then wea- ving a story around that. At the Hotel Maria Cristina, we took our cues from the style of the building itself, the fascinating history of its visitors and the events it has hosted, as well as the culture of San Sebastian. Going back to the hotel’s beginning, we discovered its original story and then learned about the “plot twists” that have been added over the years. This has given us the foundation for creating a new chapter that is rooted in the past. For Starwood Luxury Collection do you have a standard design guideline or do you treat each property as a new case. The beauty of designing a Starwood Luxury Collection hotel is that each one is bespoke and there are no strict standards; the guidelines are loose which allows our creativity to flow. Partnering with Starwood is fantastic because the thread which links all its brands is the understanding that design is a powerful tool for creating memorable destinations which guests return to time and again. What was the main inspiration in the renova- tion process of Hotel San Sebastian. Our restoration of the Hotel Maria Cristina has been influenced by its namesake, Spain’s revered Queen Consort Maria Cristina, as well its wonderful history. The hotel was built during the Belle Époque when haute couture was born and women’s liberation was growing in importance. This provenance, alongside the fluid Art Nouveau detailing by the original archi- tect Charles Mewès, the visionary behind the Ritz hotels in Madrid, Paris and London, has formed a beautiful canvas for the next chapter in this icon’s tale. The property has also been the darling of the glamorous set since the 1953 debut of the International San Sebastian Film Festival. Our design revives the hotel’s legacy as the home of Maria Cristina by honouring all the strong women who have visited it. In the lobby, for instance, a large portrait of Maria Cristina has been hung behind the reception desk to greet guests as they enter into her majesty’s estate. Another example is the signature image in the Dry San Sebastian bar, a photograph of Bette Davis who, according to legend, smoked her last cigarette there during her final public appearance before her death in 1989. And in the suites, which are located in the turrets of each corner of the building, every floor celebrates inspiring women from different decades, starting with the 1910s on the first level and rising to the 1950s on the fifth storey. Guests are greeted in the entry hall of each suite by a “walk of fame” with photos and quotes honouring the illustrious stars who visited the hotel during the respective era. Can you tell us more about your collaboration with Cassina Contract. We love working with Italian suppliers like Cassina, as we find their dedication to precise craftsmanship and high-quality materials is truly superior. Of course each project always has its learning curve and unique set of challenges. The Maria Cristina required numerous variations with lots of custom pieces that took time to configure, so we all worked hard to make sure everything would be a success. By teaming-up with Cassina, we felt assured that all this effort would result in beautiful, expertly crafted furniture that helps shape this next installment of the hotel’s tale. The renovation of Hotel Maria Cristina, which was completed in time for its 100th anniversary this month, is part of a larger strategy to invest in the restoration of Starwood's most celebrated Luxury Collection hotels. Cassina partnered with The Gallery, the studio within HBA’s London team that is dedicated to high concept bespoke interior design, to bring to life the bold concepts that went into the design of Hotel Maria Cristina San Sebastian. Cassina supplied and installed custom FF&E for 107 luxurious guest rooms and 29 suites. Cassina also provided custom designed furniture for the public spaces. Poltrona Frau is joining forces with carefully selected partners with the objective to offer to architects and designers a complete solution and a better service, in particular for auditorium & theatre projects. The existing partnership with Kvadrat has been developing extremely well and resulted in a number of interesting joint projects. Careful research has gone into the production of fabrics to create an optimal fusion of both aesthetics and function in the seat design, while also incorporating important safety features such as fire retardant treatment. Fantoni has over a hundred years of experience in wood crafting, and is market leader in acoustic panels whilst Pedrera is an engineering company that has a long association with the theatre sector where it has proved its credentials in the development of stage construction. The new partnerships allow Poltrona Frau to provide complete interior solutions for theaters starting from acoustic paneling to fixed seating all the way to the design and engineering of the staging systems and furnishings for shows and large multi-purpose halls. Its unerring choice of partners demonstrate Poltrona Frau Contract’s commitment to providing customers with the very best, acting as a single reference point to coordinate all the workers and professionals and provide an optimal turnkey service. 01 ARCHITECTURE 02 DESIGN Q&A INGE MOORE PRINCIPAL HBA LONDON 03 LIFE & PEOPLE DLT - A historic luxury department store in St. Petersburg re-opens its doors Starwood reopens Hotel Maria Cristina San Sebastian, a Luxury Collection Hotel, designed by HBA / The Gallery London Poltrona Frau Seating is joining forces with Fantoni and Pedrera news NOVEMBER.12 / ISSUE #10
