Client: Four Seasons Hotels
Interiors designers: ReardonSmith Architects, Cheryl Rowley Design
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Size: 38,500 sq m
Completion time: 33 months
‘New-built high up in Peter’s Square, a corner mansion then ascended; and where its lofty perron ended, two sentry lions stood at guard like living things, and kept their ward with paw uplifted.’
Pushkin’s poem The Bronze Horseman describes St Petersburg’s Lion Palace, built in the 19th-century by Auguste Ricard Montferrand. Today it welcomes guests as a Four Seasons hotel, Russia’s first, redesigned by ReardonSmith Architects and Cheryl Rowley Design along with local heritage architect Raphael Dayanov, to reinstate its luxurious palatial past.
The triangular mansion (originally home to Princess Cleopatra Lobanov-Rostovsky) spent much of the 20th century as a hostel, school and state offices, with various renovations causing significant damage to the once beautiful palace, until it was decided by the office of the Russian president that the building should be saved. The designers were asked to restore Lion Palace to its original glory, while adding modern comforts for the Four Seasons guests. And Sculptor Paulo Triscorni’s stone lions – the Lion Palace’s namesake, now ‘stood at guard’ for almost two centuries – were restored, becoming once again iconic symbols for the building.
The impressively expansive building’s pastel yellow facade is framed with Corinthian order colonnades leading to the stone staircase, which in turn leads guests up to the entrance. The exterior is echoed in the lobby by columns, detailed with light coloured bronze, referencing the original interior shown in sketches by Montferrand. Inspired by the style of the 18th-century Russian Empire, silk damask walls are framed with inset marble, and the lion sculptures are repeated in brass metalwork. Leading on from the lobby is the grand staircase: the original decorative elements have been preserved using marble, as in Montferrand’s original plans.
Also found at lobby level is the hotel bar, whose redesign was inspired by Tsar Peter the Great’s interest in the sea and shipbuilding. Decorated almost entirely with wood, the bar uses panelling, ceiling cladding, and parquet around a homely double-sided fireplace. Paintings of ships cover the walls, while gilt bronze chandeliers from the 19th century hang overhead.
But the palatial splendour of the heritage-listed building is found in each of the 183 guest rooms and 29 suites, which proved a challenge to the architects and designers. Given the triangular shape of the hotel, many of the guest rooms have unique floor plans, which inspired Cheryl Rowley Design to avoid the ‘cookie-cutter guestroom experience’, and instead to create uniquely styled rooms, enhancing their neoclassical architectural features and high ceilings.
Walnut doors open to reveal ivory coloured mouldings and custom-built cabinetry, and neoclassical-style furniture in mahogany, hazelnut and cherry, with gildings, black lacquer and chinoiserie. Bathrooms feature marble on the walls and flooring, and vanity units topped with granite.
The colour palettes of the rooms were inspired by the pastel-coloured exteriors of St Petersburg’s historic buildings: guest rooms are sky blue and yellow, with touches of garnet red; in the suites are teal blue and gold with hints of russet.
Bringing new life to Pushkin’s poem, the Four Seasons Lion Palace hotel boasts architecture old and new; not an unfamiliar concept to the area, as the Hermitage celebrates its 250th anniversary next year.
ReardonSmith Architects is an award-winning global leader in hotel and resort design.
Words by Emily Black
Main suppliers:
Lighting fixtures (chandeliers & sconces):
Bespoke fixtures designed by CRD (Cheryl Rowley Design)
Decorative hardware:
General hardware:
Sanitaryware:
Presidential suite (solid marble bath tub) Limestone Gallery
Carpet:
