Page - 152 - in Demolished Modified Endangered - Modelling Austrian Architecture Of The 20th Century

152 HOTEL INTERCONTINENTAL BY HOLABIRD & ROOT, CARL APPEL Year 1964 Status Endangered Material Paper Glue Scale 1:100 Model maker Barbara Gruber From 1959 to 1964, the InterContinental hotel was built at Johannesgasse 28 in the 3rd district of Vienna. The building was designed by the US architecture office Holabird & Root in collaboration with the Austrian architects Carl Appel and Walter Jaksch.1 The 90m long and 16.35m deep hotel was built by the US company Pan American World Airways. The building is situated right next to the Stadtpark, which borders on the historic city centre of Vienna. Originally, the building was planned to be 56m tall in order to reach a capacity of 500 guest rooms. However, due to protests by the public and the city, it was reduced to the height of 45m. So as to reach the originally planned capacity, the initially straight building design was changed to a T-shape. Additionally, the ceiling height of the guest rooms was lowered from 2.60m to 2.45m with the help of a special building permit from the city. The entrance hall, some small shops, a lounge, a bar, a restaurant and a night club were located on the ground floor of the building. A ballroom able to hold up to 1150 guests was placed on the first floor. The guest rooms came in a variation of three different floor plans and four different colour schemes. The seminar rooms and the presidential suite were located on the top floor. The hotel was opened on the 6th of March in 1964.2 1 Achleitner, Friedrich (1990): Österreichische Architektur im 20. Jahrhundert: Ein Führer in vier Bänden. Band III/1 Wien: 1.-12. Bezirk. Salzburg, Wien: Residenz Verlag. 118-119. 2 art:phalanx Kommunikationsagentur (Ed.): Tor zur Welt: Intercontinental Wien. Wien: Amalthea Signum Verlag. 75-78.