Bits by Gromco

The Waldorf=Astoria brand seems to be on a roll, financial crisis be damned. It was only a few months ago that we announced the planned Waldorf=Astoria hotel in Montreal and now we're adding Chicago to the list of lucky cities.

The hotel tower, designed by DeStefano & Partners is projected to reach 1,100 feet (that's over 100 floors!), but unlike certain other landmarks planned for Chicago, it will not surpass the height of the Sears Tower...

Read the rest of: "Waldorf=Astoria Hotel Comes To Chicago"»

Any architecturally curious visitor to Downtown Manhattan would probably remember three buff-colored high-rise towers occupying the southern fringes of Central Greenwich Village, just above Houston Street. They are University Village (also known as Silver Towers) - a residential complex designed by James Ingo Freed (I.M.Pei & Associates) and owned by New York University. And they've just been landmarked, protecting them from future alterations or modifications...

Read the rest of: "I.M.Pei-Designed Apartment Buildings Landmarked"»

After more than two years of reconstruction, a former funeral parlor in the 19th arrondissement of Paris reopened in its new incarnation as the city's newest modern arts center christened "104" (Centquatre)...

Co-directed by Robert Cantarella and Frédéric Fisbach, the center, at 104 rue d'Aubervilliers was green-lighted by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë in 2005. More than two years and 100M euros later, Centquatre opened to the public in October.

Read the rest of: "104: New Modern Art Center"»

Affordable design and even 'affordable luxury' is not an oxymoron. Well, not exactly, anyway... In fact, it's a trend that's been sweeping the hotel industry in recent years. Using modern construction methods in combination with innovative cost-cutting techniques and choosing slightly off-prime locations, a handful of hoteliers have attempted to reshape the industry by providing low-cost designer hotel experience for the younger, tech-savvy crowd.

Mama Shelter is the latest example of the trend. (De)signed by Philippe Starck, this modern hotel on Rue Bagnolet in the 20th Arrondissement of Paris opened just a couple of weeks ago....

Read the rest of: "Mama Shelter Hotel Aims for Affordable Design Experience"»

You gain some, you lose some. While the city is busy adding thousands of hotels rooms (we wrote about one new project last month), some in the hospitality business decided they'd had enough of the Montreal market.

The management of the Omni Mont-Royal hotel on Sherbrooke street has announced its decision to close the 32-year old 299-room property (which had previously been operated under the brands of Westin and Four Seasons) on Dec 10th, citing "operational difficulties"...

Read the rest of: "Hotel Omni on Rue Sherbrooke to Close"»

Many tourists (not to mention the residents) find the lack of direct transport links between Downtown and Old Montreal inconvenient. Sure, the métro is there, but because of the U-shaped configuration of its lines, a traveler who wants to go from centrally located Peel Street to no less central Old Montreal would have to travel a few stops west (or east) on the green line, switch to the orange line, then essentially come back to the geographic center of the city albeit 10-15 blocks south. Annoying.

Fortunately, the city is aware of that - in fact, many recent proposals for building a tramway line cited this very inconvenience as the major reason for building it. Well, the tramway, if it's ever built, is still years away, but something much more feasible is already coming, the Gazette reported: Old Montreal and Downtown Montreal are to be linked by a new bus route...

Read the rest of: "Downtown, Old Port To Be Linked By New Bus Route"»

The current issue of the Economist (June 10th-16th 2006) has a short article ("Deadly Beauty", p28) on the popular if macabre use of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California - namely, on its function as the perfect suicide locale. Apparently, the 4-foot-tall railing deters only the most hesitant would-be suicides.

As for the rest, according to the data published in the article, the Golden Gate Bridge with its two-per-month attempted suicide rate is the most popular place in the world to call it quits. (Far from everyone succeeds, though)...

Read the rest of: "Heaven's Golden Gate"»

What do you do if you're a Russian architect wishing to please your tsar? Why, you build an ice palace in the Palace Square, of course! This architectural technique has been used, to varying degrees of success, at least twice in the past three hunred years. We're happy to report that the most recent application did not yet result in any decapitations or torn out tongues (the first one did). Yet for some of us, waiting outside for 2 hours with the Russian winter in full swing may be the modern day equivalent of these severe punishments.

Puzzled? Read the explanations and see more pictures of the Ice Palace in the article.

Read the rest of: "Ice Palace"»