Aerial View
The Republic of Korea Air Force has selected a signature design by the Minneapolis office of The Durrant Group, Inc. for a $20 million hotel the air force will own and operate as a business venture on popular Haeundae beach in metropolitan Busan.
Durrant won the project through a design competition in which the firm partnered with Haenglim Architects & Engineers of Anyang, South Korea.
Entry Canopy
The 16-story, 159,000-square-foot hotel will have 21 guest rooms and 63 condominiums, all with ocean views. Design includes six banquet halls, spas, restaurants and lounges - including a glassed-in rooftop garden "sky lounge" - courtyards and balconies for parties and sunbathing, a karaoke room, billiards room, business center, convenience store and four stories of underground parking.
Currently, the air force operates a modest, three-story hotel on the building site, which is less than one half acre. That hotel will be demolished this year, with construction of the new hotel scheduled to begin in 2007 for completion in 2010.
Entry Canopy
Although it's unusual for the Korean military to sponsor a design competition for a building project, the client wanted architecture symbolic of the air force, with a contemporary look to attract an increasing number of tourists and business travelers to Busan. The air force also will use the hotel for official purposes.
Sae Min Oh, Durrant designer for the project, describes the overall concept as "floating volume, like an airplane, but with the mass supported by beams."
Interior: Restaurant
Oh said that providing ocean views for all rooms was very difficult on the tight site, but the extra effort proved worthwhile. The air force told him it was a significant factor in naming his Durrant design as the winner.
Winning the project has special meaning for South Korea-born Oh, who considers the beach at Haeundae his favorite, calling it "the Waikiki of Korea."
Night Rendering
The air force hotel is the second Asian hotel project Durrant has won through design competitions recently. The other is a $36 million expansion and renovation of the landmark Yellow Dragon Hotel in Hangzhou, China.
The Minneapolis office of Durrant has worked in Asia for more than 15 years. Another of the firm's current projects in Korea is design of Lotte II, a 1,660-foot-high, 107-story office/hotel tower in Busan that will be one of the tallest buildings in the world when completed in 2012.
Model Study
About The Durrant Group
Services of The Durrant Group include architecture, engineering, planning, project delivery, financing, interior design and graphic design. Projects of Durrant's Minneapolis office include justice centers, embassies and numerous international mixed-use and entertainment developments, as well as convention centers, hotels and
museums in the U.S. and Asia.