Though it loses something in translation, Gastwerk is a pun on the building’s original function—a gaswerk, or gasworks—and on its new one, that of a ‘guest works,’ or a hotel. This is a textbook reclamation of a decaying heavy industrial site, a trend that takes Americans’ appetite for loft living one step further: while New York artists inhabit posh city lofts, German photographer Andreas Gursky lives in a converted power plant in Düsseldorf—and while it may seem edgy in England or the US to convert a warehouse or printing press into a hotel, it can’t be long before the Germans make a hotel from a nuclear plant or a drydock on the Baltic Sea.
Happily the hotel’s execution lives up to the novelty of the concept; the rooms are uncannily bright and airy, many with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the interior design is modern yet accessible—though a favorite of design junkies and architectural trainspotters, Gastwerk is a hotel first, and a comfortable one at that. The flagship suite was designed by Terence Conran, but even the humblest rooms look sharp, in exposed brick and muted colors, with classic high-design furniture alongside modern musts like CD players and high-speed internet.
Public amenities include a health club and fitness center as well as extensive business and conference facilities, and the hotel’s new restaurant serves a mix of the cuisines of five continents. The location is not quite downtown, though it’s just a short cab ride to the city center, and the creative industries are beginning to migrate toward the Gastwerk’s neighborhood, bringing the best in restaurants and nightlife with them.
author watson@mouselink.net, source www.tablethotels.com