Client: City Inn Hotels
Main contractor: Bouwfonds MAB Ontwikkeling B.V.
Architect: BDG Architecten Ingenieurs Almere
Details: 465 floorless shower pods for City Inn’s first development on mainland Europe, the biggest hotel to be built in the Netherlands on the Oosterdokseiland in the heart of Amsterdam
Value: £2.14 million
Duration: Deliveries to site start June 2009, end late 2009/early 2010
The Oosterdokseiland project – one of the biggest urban development projects in Europe – marks the continental European debut for both City Inn Hotels and RB Farquhar.
RB Farquhar has an established track record of supplying bathroom and shower pods to the award-winning hotel group, having previously supplied 300 shower pods to the new City Inn development in Leeds during 2008. In parallel with the Amsterdam development, RB Farquhar is also designing and assembling a further 584 shower and bathroom pods for City Inn’s second London hotel, located next to the Tower of London.
The pods for both City Inn developments are being produced in RB Farquhar’s custom-built bathroom pod assembly plant in Chomutov, in the Czech Republic, where over 10,000 pods per year roll off the company’s production lines.
The Oosterdokseiland project (ODE), next to Amsterdam’s Centraal Station, is developing over 200,000sq.m of mixed housing, commercial and leisure buildings on a riverside island site which was the former sorting centre of PTT Post.
As well as the new hotel, the ODE development also includes a convention centre, public library, music academy and many shops, restaurants and bars.
London-based City Inn Hotels was founded in 1995 following extensive research into the requirements of business travellers. The company now operates six upmarket hotels in Bristol, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, London, and has won a number of travel awards for its pioneering contemporary design and stylish features, including “fresh” air conditioning and advanced multimedia entertainment systems.
Announcing the launch of the flagship Amsterdam hotel, Sandy Orr, City Inn’s executive chairman, said: “This is a momentous occasion for our private British company as it is our first international development and it is in one of the most important locations in one of Europe’s most historic and modern cities.”
