Hospitality Design - January/February 2014 - 87

4. The Viceroy will
include cocktail bar
Apothecary Salon.
5. The lobby of the
Hilton Istanbul Bomonti
Hotel & Conference
Center, outfitted with
columns, plastersculptured surfaces, and
limestone floors with
gray marble circular
patterns.

4
additions. The 186-room property, which opened
last May, is a former tobacco warehouse that
was demolished and reconstructed to make
floor space for amenities like CHI spa. Hong
Kong-based LRF Designers Limited crafted the
majority of the interiors, including the opulent
public spaces flaunting a custom 59-foot-high
silk painting lit by a chandelier that showers
Bohemian crystals down two stories in the
central domed atrium. The guestrooms and
corridors feature a muted color scheme of teal,
cream, and caramel, with generous amounts
of Turkish white marble. "We wanted the
rooms to be calm and a respite from the hectic
bustle of the ciity. The palette reflects its location on the banks of the
Bosphorus," says Charles Robertson, LRF's design director. Hong Kong
firm AFSO designed the all-day restaurant IST TOO marked by a glazed
wine salon and dark chocolate wood furnishings with custom rose gold
pendant lighting, as well as Cantonese eatery Shang Palace, where an
inverted pagoda structure floating above reception calls to mind Chinese
courtyards.

It's Personal

This year Soho House will open the biggest of its private membership
clubs yet in Istanbul. Set across three buildings in the high-energy Beyoğlu
district, the ceiling will pay homage to cultural mythological figures and
the walls will be lined with frescoes. Nearby, on the steps of Gezi Park, yoo
Hotels just debuted its first fashion-conscious yoo2 hotel. Each of the 59
guestrooms and suites at yoo2 Taksim Square are decked out with textile
wallpaper and heavy, lacquered furniture.
Just southeast of the city, Radisson Blu opened in Tuzla, a peaceful
weekend getaway spot located on a headland on the coast of the Marmara

5

Sea, marking the brand's sixth property in Istanbul. The retreat boasts a
43,000-square-foot spa, and 289 guestrooms that either overlook the pool
and garden or the hotel's Zen garden.
Viceroy Hotels and Resorts is making posh inroads into Istanbul with
the forthcoming hideaway Viceroy Estate at Bebeköy, a series of buildings
nestled in the hills of an exclusive residential neighborhood that date back
to 1861 (they once housed an orphanage). Liana Hawes Young, associate
creative director of New York-based Wimberly Interiors, says, "The
experience should feel completely residential." To accomplish this they
used indigenous wood species and stones, with motifs and styles reflecting
rich Turkish design history. Local, handpainted accent tiles are found
in the bath and powder rooms, patinated metals are used extensively in
lighting and trays, and neutral guestrooms are punctuated boldly with the
colors of the Bosphorus. "The blues and greens in the water are complex
and ever-changing. We used an ombre drapery fabric that specifically
showed the changing hues within the water," says Hawes Young. Tucked
into the buildings are the cocktail bar Apothecary Salon, library retreat
the Bibilotheque, and the Glass House, an indoor-outdoor lounge where
cigars can be puffed on "an expansive deck set within lantern-lit trees
looking out over the hills onto the Bosphorus," says Hawes Young. A
two-story private VIP suite with direct river views, she adds, will be like
"staying in a treehouse complete with original beams and stone walls."

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