If true luxury is in the localization, the reborn Hotel Nacional is ostentatious. Right next to the Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers) hillside, with an unobstructed view of the Pedra da Gávea (Gávea Stone), and just steps from the São Conrado (Saint Conrado) beach in Rio.
For someone on the top of the 33-floor cylinder which was originally inaugurated in 1972, even the statue of Christ the Redeemer is visible.
Architect Oscar Niemeyer and businessman José Tjurs saw the space, an area of 15 thousand m2, as an ideal spot for the tallest hotel at the time in the country.
The 3,000 m2 lobby, without pillars, has a view of the sea. The gardens by Burle Max, cover 2,500 m2. “Nobody builds anything so expansive and generous anymore”, says Rui Manuel Oliveira, Vice President of the Meliá network in Brazil, which will operate the recently reopened five star.
The last guests checked out in 1995. At the time, the hotel belonged to banker Artur Falk, of real estate agency Interunion, which was accused of fraud in the Papa-Tudo capitalization securities episode.
The hotel went broke and was place under federal intervention. During the next 20 years, it gradually turned into a stunning carcass. Artwork was stolen, the modernistic furniture was auctioned off and it gradually became a real estate myth.
In 2009, a group captained by Goias businessman Marcelo Limirio Gonçalves, former owner of the NeoquÃmica laboratory and a partner in Hypermarcas, bought the tower for R$ 85 million (US$ 25 million).
Afterwards they associated with the Spanish network Meliá and, in a long, drawn-out process, and with the Organ for Preservation of Rio’s Historic Heritage Properties, IRPH, which allowed for very few alterations in the original project.
Folha visited the hotel on its first day of new operations, on Thursday (the 15th), the day of Niemeyer’s birthday. The hotel is under a regimen of soft opening – a kind of rehearsal that will last for one month with 60 rooms already ready for occupancy. […]
Continue Reading – Source: Folha de S.Paulo

Aline is an international licensed architect currently practicing in Canada, she is the reason you are reading this right now, Aline founded the platform back in 2008 shaping the very foundation of Architecture Lab, her exemplary content curation process that defines the online magazine today.

Aline Chahine
Aline is an international licensed architect currently practicing in Canada, she is the reason you are reading this right now, Aline founded the platform back in 2008 shaping the very foundation of Architecture Lab, her exemplary content curation process that defines the online magazine today.
Highlights
Aline founded Architecture Lab in 2008
Lead editor of dan | dailyarchnews since 2019
Founded and Creative Director of DesignRaid
Licensed architect with creative sales and marketing experience
Experience
As full-fledged architect, Aline's background involved a great deal of research that lead to the creation of Architecture Lab as an online database of exemplary design. Her experience snowballed into founding two architecture platforms, Architecture Lab and DesignRaid.
Education
Aline received USEK’s Master of Architecture in 2004 and BA in English from the University of Toronto
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