Focus: W Hotel, Tel Aviv-Jaffa
During the conversion of a historic building for a W hotel, layers of its past history were discovered
Words by David Tarpey
One of the world’s oldest cities and occupied over the centuries by everyone from the ancient Egyptians, Israelites and Romans, Jaffa swung for a while between Arab and Crusader control, followed by the Ottomans, later coming under both French and British stewardship during the 20th century. Today, part of Israel, Jaffa is the southernmost part of the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
This autumn will see the W Tel Aviv-Jaffa Hotel & Residences unveil the results of a three-year long renovation of the 19th-century French Hospital’s Chapel. Its new identity will be as the W Hotel & Residences Lounge Bar. The renovation project of the former School of the Sisterhood of St. Joseph convent and hospital has been commissioned by New York developer RFR Holding and the hotelier Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which owns the W brand.
Overseeing the project has been British architect and minimalist designer John Pawson and Ramy Gill Architects, as well as dozens of restoration experts. This ensemble has discovered long-concealed layers of paint, disassembled the original windows and restored them with imported lead glass while carrying out expert restoration on the chapel. The interiors have been returned to their original glory.
Located in the French Hospital building, the chapel’s new life as a lounge bar sports a backdrop of 14 mosaic windows, a decorative plaster dove and layers of painted colours that have been carefully revealed through the restoration process. A main feature wall from the Crusader times will form the central decoration of the W Living Room while concealed arches, rediscovered in the 19th-century building’s basement, will shape the environment for the signature restaurant.
What was your full brief for the project?
The brief specified a number of conventional elements – hotel rooms, lobby, lounge, restaurant, spa, pool and apartments – but there was scope to make something very special in terms of the overall vision: architecture that would combine new structures, 19th-century buildings and archaeology. It has been an intricate spatial narrative to put together.
You don’t want to lose the scope for powerful encounters with history, but nor do you want to feel that you are moving around a series of unrelated fragments. The idea is that it will be the quality of the atmosphere that roots people in a seamless sense of place.
Rendering of the lounge at the W Hotel Tel Aviv-Jaffa
What challenges did you encounter?
There was an extended period of archaeological investigation in advance of work beginning on site, but I think no one was surprised when additional discoveries were made further into the project. These included crusader graves and a section of stone bastion also dating from the Crusades. On each occasion, work was suspended while the historians returned, and the design was then revised to take account of what had been found.
What makes this lounge bar so unusual?
Past projects have required us to design entirely new churches and to renovate existing church architecture, but we have never before worked inside a deconsecrated chapel. The restoration has been a labour of love, and spatially it will be very exciting.
What were the most rewarding aspects of the job? What excited you about it?
It’s always interesting working in a new city for the first time, but Tel Aviv-Jaffa is a uniquely rich and cosmopolitan environment. Our site sits at the crown of the ancient port city and there are spectacular views over the roofs of the old town to the sea, along the broad sweep of the beach front and across to the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv. These are a mix of art deco, classical and modernist buildings. It is impossible not to be excited by the energy of the place.
