WORK HAS begun on incorporating Lisbon’s Vasco da Gama tower into a new luxury hotel for the Sana Group.
The 21 floor Torre Vasco da Gama Royal Hotel is to be built around Portugal’s highest manmade structure at the former Expo site at the Parque das Nações.
“At the moment, we are in the process of preparing the foundations on the building site and demolishing old structures,” said José Moreno, a spokesman for the Parque das Nações’ Residents Commission.
The new hotel is being designed by architect Nuno Leónidas and planning permission was approved by Lisbon Câmara in 2006, although the idea for a hotel had been floating around since 2004.
The project will consist of two structures built between the River Tagus and the Vasco da Gama Tower.
The five star hotel, which should take two years to complete, is to have 176 rooms and 10 suites with a total of 372 beds.
Owned by the Sana Group, the Royal Hotel will be inaugurated in 2009 and will be the first bio-climatic ‘green hotel’ not only in terms of the materials used in construction but also the lighting, heating, air conditioning and even the light sensitive windows.
The Vasco da Gama Tower, which has been closed since October 2004, will be refurbished keeping its three panoramic elevators which extend to the top of the building.
It had been originally intended to demolish the Vasco da Gama Tower after Expo 98.
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