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70 million, that's
the price of the admission ticket for the Crowne Plaza Geneva extension,
with acquisition of the building, the necessary land for expanding
it, the renovation of the original 300 bedrooms and the construction
of the new wing. Was that reasonable? “Yes”, he says,
without hesitation. "The gross sum seems right, but relating
it to the average cost of a bedroom, it comes to CHF. 260,000 each
for 500 bedrooms, an excellent figure taking into consideration
all of the values which are added to it by reason of the peripheral
facilities which we have designed".
Because it is there that the imagination of René de Picciotto,
that of his team and of the Group H, designer of the whole project,
have played their part to the full, in association with the management
of the hotel. Just increasing the number of beds by 70% would have
largely exceeded the demand, even indexed to the laudable development
of the neighbouring Palexpo. "Without a satisfactory reply
to this question, my ego alone would have pushed me, and that was
far from enough". So something else was needed. In the analysis,
Strader SA could not but find that there was nowhere else in Geneva,
and even farther afield, specifically for holding important conferences
or large meetings in a quality hotel environment.
Undoubtedly, that is where the future of the Crowne Plaza Geneva
lay, the first objective being to make available to organisers,
among other large spaces, a room measuring 1,000 sq. metres, without
pillars, with ceilings at least four metres high, and capable of
taking 1,000 people. "A hell of a bet, but, it proved a winner,
as you can see today” added René de Picciotto. "Then
we had the idea to give light through an enormous expanse of glass
to a fair port of these meeting arecas, an enlivening feature wich
is not often to be found elsewhere. And all that without the worksite
for the extension seriously interrupting the operation of the hotel,
thus contributing to the self-financing of the new facilities during
the sixteen months it look to build them, another minor miracle".
At the time of the inauguration, on 19th November last year, animated
by a marvellous troupe of tightrope walkers playing leapfrog on
illuminated walls of the entrance hall, the councillors present
as well as the whole ofGeneva could not but admire the result of
the challenge taken up four years earlier, in just three short days,
to bring Geneva into the first rank of conference cities. Just because,
driven on, this man of vision cannot stand still and will always
forge ahead.
René de Picciotto
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