The materials and structure of the hotel and administrative building align closely with the nearby “Spanischer Bau” (Spanish Building), built just a few years earlier. Our aim is to preserve this unique and cohesive cityscape, a rarity for Cologne. Key features include the facades with brick infills within a concrete frame and balustrades inspired by the city’s coat of arms. The ground floor, with its period-typical colonnade fronting Under Goldschmied, remains intact. We added a lightweight steel structure to the fourth floor of the administrative building on Grosse Budengasse, which is slightly off-axis. This extension allows us to maintain a continuous eaves line across the building while ensuring the new addition remains distinct in its materiality.

Additionally, we are enhancing the block with a slender, six-story new hotel building that wraps around a green atrium and connects to the historic Senats Hotel within the block interior. This discreet expansion adds 2,890 m² of new space to the existing 8,000 m², while the street-facing ground-floor spaces can accommodate retail and dining.

We developed the interior design concept for Radisson RED, which will reopen the hotel with 171 rooms, a conference area in the basement, a restaurant located in the former Senate Hall, and a coworking café. Special attention has been given to the areas in the basement (conference areas) and in the Senate Hall (restaurant) on the first floor of the historic hotel. The challenge was to integrate the brand’s corporate design while respecting the building’s listed structure and exceptional architectural features, including etched glass windows by Hanns Kirchner, a hand-painted suspended ceiling in the Senate Hall, wrought-iron railings, and stone floors.

In the 1960s, the Senate Hall, with its opulent furnishings, became a beloved gathering spot and dance venue for Cologne families, particularly during Carnival. We aim to continue this “living room” atmosphere, reimagined in a contemporary spirit, within the co-working café on Unter Goldschmied, featuring casual furnishings and a communal table.