Behind the Redesign of the New Hilton Paris Opera
Photo Credit: Le Grand Salon at Hilton Paris Opera opened the same year as the Eiffel Tower. Hilton Worldwide
Skift Take
Hilton Design Studio is helping ramp up the brand's game on the international architecture and design scene, where an emphasis is placed on creating spaces that make locals proud.
In 1889 during the first day of the World's Fair in Paris, visitors arriving by boat along the Seine entered the fairgrounds under the newly erected arches of the Eiffel Tower, which had just opened the night before.
Over on the Right Bank near the Paris Opera House, the Grand Hotel Terminus also opened in 1889, adjacent to the Gare Saint Lazare train station where millions of out-of-town folk arrived enroute to the World's Fair. Some of Claude Monet's most respected urban impressionist paintings depict Saint Lazare.
During those early days of the grand hotel epoch, the Grand Hotel Terminus helped to define the spirit of the World's Fair, considered the catalyst that sparked the age of Modernity.
A few weeks ago, the newly reflagged Hilton Paris Opera opened inside the hallowed Haussmann-style building following a $50 million renovation.
So how exactly do you retrofit and retool a 126-year-old Belle Epoque hotel and make it work for today's latte sipping, lobby s
