The building is located along the west side of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, bordering the arcades of Piazza del Duomo. The complete renovation of the historic building overlooking Via Silvio Pellico and inner courtyards of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele transformed previous offices building into a superior four-star hotel.
The project that has just received the LEED GOLD certification, included the creation of the new spa and meeting rooms in the basement; a lobby, breakfast room and restaurant on the ground floor; 85 rooms and suites on the six upper floors. The façade was restored in keeping with its original historical appearance, with the addition of thermal and acoustic insulation. The intervention also included the complete replacement of all existing windows.
The ground floor configuration allows for openness and continuity between the lobby, breakfast room and lounge bar. On the upper floors, the project defined different types of the rooms (standard, superior, deluxe, junior suite and penthouse with terrace) in order to meet the demands of the operator, Room Mate. Large new skylights illuminate the restaurant area overlooking Via Silvio Pellico. The breakfast room is equipped with new steel mezzanines, suspended from tie-rods, in order to increase its capacity.
The choice of interior materials has been directed toward dry systems, such as gypsum fibreboard walls with internal insulation in order to guarantee thermal and acoustic comfort and false ceilings made with milled larch and plasterboard.
The choice of interior materials was provided by interior decorator in charge, the Studio Urquiola, who wanted to make special reference to the Italian design of the ‘50s and ‘60s. In the common areas and in the rooms there are tropicalised steel wall coverings, tapestry in gavatex painted in pastel colours, glazed ceramic in the bathrooms. The floors are made in resin with Venetian terrazzo effect or fabric in order to improve acoustic comfort.
The goal of the interior design was to recall the image of typical interior of the Milanese tradition, but using contemporary materials and finishes. The interior decorator therefore wanted to choose furniture by Milanese designers, starting from the prototypes of the 1960s by the architect Franco Albini to pieces recently designed by her. Even the decorative lighting has been designed according this principle.
Exterior and interior lighting uses low-energy light sources. The central heating/cooling is an integrated system with a heat pump VRV district heating substation, in order to reduce and optimise the hotel's energy consumption.