THE 2003 EUROPEAN HOTEL DESIGN EVENT
Foundation Platinum Sponsor

(London, 30 October 2003) The European Hotel Design Awards have culminated tonight with a dinner and ceremony at The Royal Lancaster Hotel, London at which the winning and short-listed projects across 10 categories have been announced. The Scheme, now in its sixth year, has become the outstanding event of its kind, attracting more entries from mainland Europe in 2003 than ever before. The Dinner was preceded during the day by a hotel design conference and exhibition bringing together many of the leading names from the industry.

Speaking at the beginning of the ceremony, the chairman of the judging panel Patrick Reardon of ReardonSmith architects, said: "It is no secret that this has been a difficult year for the sector so it is particularly rewarding to mark the achievement and vision of hoteliers and their designers who have continued to strive to take our industry forward. The issue of design within the successful development of international brands as well as individual hotels is now understood to be significant. The challenge for everyone who cares about our industry is to ensure that design continues to evolve so that we can go on offering our guests an experience they will chose to purchase and will wish to return to.

New to the Awards Scheme this year, was the Outstanding Property Award celebrating the potential of design to help create hotels that serve the test of time. The ReardonSmith Student Award, which every year recognises a different aspect of architecture and design, this year focused on the design of an accessible hotel bedroom and bathroom.

The ceremony was compered by well-known wit, raconteur and author Gyles Brandreth and was attended by some 600 guests from across the European hotel industry.

The panel of judges were:

• Amanda Rosa, interior designer of the Columbus and Dakota hotel brands
• Olga Polizzi of RF Hotels
• Robert Deiner of Design Hotels
• Tanya Geller, Vice President, Acquisitions & Development Europe for Strategic Hotel Capital
• Ian Livingstone, MD of London & Regional
• Sir James Devitt of CB Richard Ellis Hotels
• Geraldine McKenna of The Savoy Group
• Oliver Geldner
• Guy Dittrich
• Matt Turner, editor of Sleeper.

The organisers of The European Hotel Design Conference and Awards 2003 were CB Richard Ellis Hotels, Hotel Spec and Timothy Battle/Emap. The Foundation Sponsor was ReardonSmith Architects, the Platinum Sponsor was E C Harris and Gold Sponsors were StructureTone, Curzon Interiors, Brintons, Moren Greenhalgh and Skopos.

back to the top of the page

Back to the main events page