LEFT: The latest addition to the portfolio, The Park Hyderabad, takes inspiration from the Jewels of the Nizams ABOVE: The seven-star palace has been designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)
properties will go some way to the target of doubling the group’s room count in the next five years. Its latest flagship, The Park Hyderabad, is
the city’s first member of Design Hotels™. It seeks to build on the group’s signature style, innovative design and passionate
Since taking over as Chairperson, Priya Paul’s attentions have been on “refocusing the entire company and to really use design as a differentiator”
service. Since she began her tenure, Paul’s attentions have been on “refocusing the entire company and to really use design as a differentiator.” As such she has employed international design firms to create her vision, including Conran & Partners. “They’ve done a lot of work with us starting with our Bengaluru hotel in 1999-2000, then Delhi and Kolkata,” she says. “They have been
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responsible for the entire renovation and refurbishment, working with us on our brief to create contemporary Indian hotels.” In addition, Paul has collaborated with
London-based practices Blacksheep and Project Orange, with the latter currently creating interiors for a new property in Pune. For The Park Hyderabad, Paul used a total of 15 designers no less, some of whom had no previous history of designing hotels. Although open to new ideas, Paul admits she was very clear on the ambiance she wanted to create and remained heavily involved in the entire design process. “I wanted to build something that was
iconic in terms of architecture,” says Paul of the newbuild, nine-storey property. Working with Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), the brief was to take inspiration from the Jewels of the Nizams, the largest and richest collection of jewels in India. “We worked on a glass building enveloped in a skin of some 6,700 metal panels which take their design from a jewellery setting pattern,”
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