The Sofitel brand is ending 2010 with three hotels opening in one week. The properties include:
Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom, the brand’s first location in Austria, is housed in an 18-story building made of glass and steel. The elegant façades, each featuring a different monochrome palette, hint at the décor in the rooms. Gray for the south façade, black for the west, and white for the north bring a life-size piece of abstract art to the daily lives of both the Viennese and the hotel’s guests, who will discover a multitude of constantly shifting facets.
Like an echo of the exterior, each of the hotel’s 182 monochromatic rooms, including 26 suites, is dressed entirely in immaculate white, light gray, or velvety black from floor to ceiling. At the top of the structure, partition walls give way to walls of glass before reaching the slanted floating roof, home to the hotel restaurant. Contemporary Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist brings color into the hotel with five moving and colorful ceilings using an innovative technique, along with a kaleidoscope of mirrors. Meanwhile, landscape architect Patrick Blanc put the finishing touch on the overall look with a living wall covered with 20,000 species of plants.
For Sofitel So Mauritius, Thai architect Lek Bunnag and fashion designer Kenzo Takada combined their creativity to make this hotel into a fundamentally different place where purity, nature, and simplicity come first. Building a decidedly contemporary complex surrounded by nature is also a major first in Mauritius; the hotel is in close communion with a harmoniously mixed environment and culture that blends Indian and Creole influences into a colorful, authentic whole.
Located on 35 acres of land with 1706 feet of beach, the resort offers 84 suites, six 1076-square-foot Beach Villas, and two 2153-square-foot “Beaulieu Villas” nestled in tropical vegetation. The suites and villas are all free-standing and at ground level for complete privacy, featuring private gardens and outdoor ponds or pools (for the villas), along with patios with outdoor showers. Nestled between the sparkling lagoon and the hibiscus and bougainvillea flowers is the spa.
With the feel of a Khmer palace, Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra in Cambodia targets the business traveler. The hotel’s conference center offers 19,375 square feet of meeting space, and its ballroom is the largest and most modern ever built in the country’s capital. The property features 201 guestrooms (including 35 suites), four restaurants, a sports complex and clubhouse, two pools, So SPA, and extensive lawns and gardens.
