The W group’s newly-opened illuminated hotel in London may have passersby wondering if they’ve stepped into Manhattan’s Times Square. The Starwood Hotel W London-Leicester Square designed by Jestico + Whiles and developed by McAleer & Rushe is a mixed-use building wrapped in a frameless glazing skin. Potentially a monster to heat during England’s brutal winters, the 200,000 square foot building features a tri-generation system that gives this luxury facility a sustainable edge.
Designed as a tribute to the locale’s theatrical history, the hotel’s façade drapes over the building like a curtain, and simultaneously reveals a lit-up pixelated screen when darkness falls. In addition to the glazing, a tri-generation energy system comprised of gas-fired CHP, absorption chillers, and a geothermal heat pump for heating and cooling keeps W’s energy portfolio modest.
A paragon of sustainable urban development, the 200,000 square foot, ten storey building combines retail, leisure, and residential facilities, ensuring that its lucky guests won’t have to travel far to meet their needs. For their design, Jestico + Whiles received the MIPIM Special Tribute to UK Country of Honor award for the second year in a row, the first firm ever to do so.
+ Jestico+Whiles
Via World Architecture News
was this article written as a press release or something? It’s a relatively banal building in a tacky area and will probably be inhabited by tacky shops and tacky people. This building has virtually no green credentials or innovative features I saw bits of it in construction and it was bog-standard.
London’s brutal winters?
well. If going to -2 degree C for up to 5 days a year is brutal?
“Potentially a monster to heat during England’s brutal winters” can only be written by someone who has never been to London in the winter. Grey perhaps, cold not really.