The Radisson Blu
Royal Hotel occupies the corner of Vesterbrogade
and Hammerichsgade in Copenhagen's city centre
across from the Tivoli Gardens. It is made
up of a 2 storey podium block above which a
curtain wall tower rises to 69.6 metres.
At the top of the tower the letters SAS are an
indication that, when it was built, the owner
was the airline Scandinavian Airlines System and
it was the SAS Royal Hotel. The building
changed hands in 1994.
This is an example of a building in which the
designer, Arne Jacobsen had a hand in every
aspect of the project from the structure to the
decoration and the furniture He even
designed the cutlery for the restaurant.
While the outside remains unchanged, apart from
the signage, the inside has retained little of
its original appearance.
As with many big building, this one has had its
detractors and it has been compared to a giant
punch card and to a glass cigar box. It
has also been suggested that the design was a
bad copy of the Lever Building in New York,
shown below.
Apparently when accused
of this by the promoter of the international style,
Philip C. Johnson,
Jacobsen responded: "At least,
it came in first when they held a
competition for the ugliest building in
Copenhagen."
Licensing
for the image of the Lever Building shown above.
Description
Lever House at 390 Park Avenue between East
53rd and 54th Streets in Midtown Manhattan,
New York City, was built in 1950-52 and was
designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill in the International
style. In 2003, the curtain wall was
replaced, designed by SM&O. It has 21
floors and is 307 feet tall. (Sources: AIA
Guide to NYC (5th ed.) and [1])
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