FOUR-STAR NH ABASCAL HOTEL
1998. MADRID

RENOVATION OF A BUILDING FOR A FOUR-STAR HOTEL LOCATED IN 47, JOSÉ ABASCAL St.- MADRID
OWNER: NH HOTELS


The author of the original project was architect Mr Manuel Ignacio Galíndez Zavala and, although the date of such project has not been determined with precision, it is known that the building permit was granted by the Building Works Section of the Urban Expansion Area of Madrid´s City Council on May 19th 1926.


This building comprises a Lower-ground floor, seven floors on the grade line (from First floor to Sixth floor) and the roofing floor.


The hotel has three interior courtyards, one in the centre and two in the sides, at a party wall each. In the back, there is an interior facade overlooking an open-space block court. In such court can be found, within the boundaries of the plot, two constructions attached to each party wall that are used as coach houses.


Prior to the renovation, the floor distribution of the building was the following:


Lower-ground floor: Divided into several enclosures.


Ground Floor and Mezzanine Floor: This is where the access to the building was located. Such access comprised two flats and some building structures in the back yard that were used as coach houses.
From Floor 1 to 6 : two flats in each floor.


Roofing Floor: This is were the rooms for the lifts were located.


The built surface of each floor is around 1,000 m2 and the building has a total built surface of 8.765,25 m2.


The plot where the building is sited has an estimated surface of 1,627 m2, with a frontage of 38.06 m in José Abascal St, where the access is located.


SITE


The building is situated within the area known as Ensanche Chamberí, Ríos Rosas-Canal (urban expansion area of the neighbourhood of Chamberí).


This is the first neighbourhood of the Ensanche that took as starting point an already existing centre of population, which developed as a result of the actions affecting the northern area of Madrid, around the neighbourhoods of Maravillas (nowadays known as Dos de Mayo) and Santa Bárbara.


The Ensanche Chamberí was designed by Carlos María de Castro as an industrial or manufacturing neighbourhood. Nonetheless, it was later consolidated as a residential area for the middle class.


The neighbourhood is divided in two parts by José Abascal Street: Chamberí and Ríos Rosas-Canal.


In the first part (Chamberí), the predominant architecture belongs to the last third of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th.

Meanwhile, in the second part (Ríos Rosas-Canal), residential buildings of rationalist and postwar period styles are combined with urban facilities such as the Canal de Isabel II (water supply company for the city of Madrid).


URBAN DEVELOPMENT SITUATION


The building has been registered in the Distribution Map (Plano de Ordenación) with category 3º, level "c" of Area 1 "Protection of the Historic Heritage".


Similarly, it has been registered in the General Catalogue of Protected Buildings with Protection level two, Structural category. In this level are included those buildings with volume and construction features of great interest, but with some internal areas of less architectural value, which allow the application of a broader building programme than that applied to the buildings belonging to level 1.
Within the category known as "Structural" are included those buildings with enough valuable elements to be protected, both in terms of volume and of architectural features.


FINAL SOLUTION


BASIC CRITERIA


Essentially, the programme to be developed consisted in adapting the building in order to be used as a four-star hotel. The renovation process had to be carried out making the best use of the existing surface and achieving an optimum functional level.


AESTHETIC CRITERIA


From the aesthetic point of view, all the original criteria that existed at the time of renovation were kept.


FUNCTIONAL CRITERIA


In terms of use, the programme envisaged a lower-ground floor, seven floors on the grade line and a roofing floor, with a total of 184 double rooms.


The various floors are connected through two centres of vertical communications, one for the clients and the other one for service and emergency purposes.


The clients centre is located on the axis of the building and consists of a staircase and two panoramic lifts, one at each side of the staircase. From the First Floor, such lifts run along the central courtyard against the face of the wall and, in the interior, they run against a glazed enclosure.


The two lifts communicate all the floors (from Lower-ground floor to Sixth floor), while the staircase starts in the Ground floor and continues up to the Sixth floor. In the flight from Ground to First floor, the stairs are displaced due to changes in the plotting. The Ground and Lower-ground floors are communicated via two exclusive stairs located each at one side of the central courtyard.


The centre of services and emergencies comprises a staircase that starts in the Lower-ground floor and continues up to the roofing, and a goods lift that communicates all the utility rooms of the different floors (from the Lower-ground level to the Sixth floor).


The distribution of the floors is the following:


LOWER-GROUND FLOOR


In this floor, two areas can be distinguished: firstly, the clients area comprising three lounges, a dining hall, toilets, toilets adapted for the disabled and a warehouse; and secondly, the service area with kitchen, cold stores, company store, cellar, laundry and bed linen warehouse, employees´ dining hall, toilets and staff changing room, room for the head of the maintenance department, refuse storage chamber, fire and sanitary water pressure group, tanks and transformation centre.


In the clients area, the building can be accessed via two lifts and via the exclusive staircase coming from the Ground Floor. In the service area, the routes of access are a staircase and a goods lift connecting all the utility rooms of the different floors.


In addition, from this level it is possible to gain access to the First Basement of the building located in 43, José Abascal St, where the service access and the emergency exit are situated. This First Basement is also connected to the Third Basement of the aforementioned building, where the required number of parking lots has been placed.


The lounges and the dining hall have external lightning and ventilation through openings in the facade and openings overlooking the two side courts.


GROUND FLOOR


This floor has been developed in three levels:


a) Access to the general lobby at the street level. This is where the lifts are located, on the left side of the reception.


b) The central way, three times higher than the lobby, leads to the block courtyard, where the two buildings previously used as coach houses are found, and which are now going to house four double rooms.


In the block courtyard, in the existing space between the building´s facade and the structure on the left, it is possible to access the Ground Floor of the building of 43, José Abascal St and enter the parking of the Third Basement.


On the left side of the central way, it is located the clients staircase, which communicates all the top floors. The stairs leading down to the lounges and to the dining hall are located at each side of the central way in the central courtyard.


The central courtyard is covered by a glazed vault consisting of metal sections and sheet glass, leaving the required ventilation surface for the courtyard.


c) The remaining space to the right and to the left of the central way has been raised 1.86 m and there are 11 floors over the level of the lobby.


On the right side, there is a bar with utility room, a group of toilets, public phones area, wardrobe and left-luggage office, floor utility room and six double rooms.


To the left, there is the office of the head of the reception, management office, administrative department, archive and photocopier, strongboxes room, floor utility room and seven double rooms.


All the rooms in this floor, including the bar and the management and administration office, have direct ventilation from the facade and the courtyards.


Seventeen double rooms will be built in this floor.


FIRST FLOOR


In this floor there is a total of 26 double rooms and a utility room.


SECOND TO FIFTH FLOOR


In each of these floors are located 29 double rooms and a utility room.


SIXTH FLOOR


In this floor, there are 25 double rooms and the utility room. The rooms overlooking the street have their own balcony.


ROOFING FLOOR


The access to this floor is done via the service and emergency staircase. In this floor are found the machinery room for the lifts and the goods lifts, as well as a room for the boilers.


STRUCTURE


CALCULATION


Two different actions were undertaken during the construction process of the building: the main one consisted in the renovation itself and the second, involved the total demolition of the old coach houses located in the back courtyard and their replacement by two newly built similar structures.


RENOVATION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE BUILDING


Structural description


The structure of the building was made up of reinforced concrete with beam-and-slab-type concrete floor made "in situ".
Such structure rests on concrete beams, which generally have the same edge, as well as on resistant brickwork walls distributed perimetrally to the building and to the central courtyard.


The structure is made up of gantries paralell to the four facades. These are interconnected with beams and resistant walls in the facades, party walls and in the central court.


The lower-ground floor has been executed on soleplate with direct foundation, with isolated footings for the supporting structures, and extended footings for the walls, resting on a very compact clayey floor.


Conditions of preservation


The structure of the building was in general well preserved, although some punctual pathologies were detected.


Verifications


The loading test report, as well as the numerical calculations in framings, beams and supporting structures, showed acceptable results, although these were a bit tight in certain parts of the supporting structures.


Subsequently, a trial mix was performed for the beams and the supporting structures.


Additionally, an analysis of the structure was carried out taking into consideration the new use of the building. For such analysis, the Characteristic Level of Strength of Concrete was established at 175 kg/cm2 and the Yield Strength of steel at 2,400 kg/cm2, which was the usual type at the time of construction. The results of the analysis were satisfactory for the beams and framings, both for bending and for shear stresses.


In the supporting structures, the results have been tighter, especially in floor six and four. Consequently, it has been necessary to reinforce such areas.


FACADES


Facade carpentry


The necessary carpentry works were undertaken in order to renovate and restore the existing wooden elements of the openings, to which the new carpentry elements were attached.


The carpentry has thermic bridge failure and a glazing consisting of climalit glass made up of green COOL LITE SECURIT SS 432 6 mm thick in the exterior, air space chamber of 12 mm and PLANILUX glass of 8 mm.


FANLIGHT


The polyhedral and triangular fanlight consists of a resistant metal structure, fixed carpentry fronts and double-wing doors for the access of the cleaning gondola.


The glazing is made up of safety glass STADIP.


CLEANING AND REPAIRS


FRONT-ENTRANCE FACADE


In order to clean and renovate the main facade, the following processes were carried out:


Cleaning


- Pollution scaling
- Scraping of oxidation waste and stripping of painting.
Renovation
Areas with stone rough coat
- Brickwork repairs in the moldings and cornices.
- Additive made up of specific resin, lime and mineral load.
- Preliminary application of remineralizant.
- Preparation of the supports by remineralization.
Collapsing rough coat
- Stippling of the flat rough coat
- Preparation of leveling and interposition coat.
- Rough coat with division in martinilla.
- Application of a solution composed of additives and water as primer.
- Application of a layer of antique finish.
- Making of false joints in the whole facade.

Zinc protections


- Zinc cappings for the frames.
- Zinc plates in cornices and perimetral mouldings.
- Laying of zinc plates on the balconies.


VERTICAL TRANSPORT


In order to connect the various floors, a group of two panoramic lifts and a service goods lift have been placed in the interior. The panoramic lifts are intented for the clients. Likewise, in the lower-ground floor, two elevation platforms will be built in order to cover the difference in floor level that exists between the planned lounges.
Interior panoramic lifts


These lifts have been planned in order to withstand a net load of 900 Kg/12 people, with 8 stops and 8 accesses (the Ground Floor one with an angle of 90º) and a speed of 1.00 m/s.


Service goods lift


This lift has been planned for a net load of 630 Kg/8 people, with 8 stops, 8 accesses and a speed of 1.00 m/s.


Elevation Platforms.


These platforms perform sloping movements in straight stretches and they have been planned to withstand a load of 150 Kg with a speed of 0.1 m/s and an hydraulic propulsion system.

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