Now in many countries, including Finland, the economic situation is not the best, but new hotels of the four-star category and higher often appear in the center of Helsinki. The recently opened Indigo Helsinki Boulevard has been very successful thanks to its clear Scandinavian style, while another hotel on Boulevardi, Klaus K, has refurbished its rooms. Hotel Kämp is popular with rock stars and foreign politicians, while the small boutique hotel Haven is popular with those who prefer seclusion to high life.
Added to these hotels is a five-star newcomer nestling next to the Design District on the quiet Pieni-Robertinkatu Street, known by its Swedish name, Lilla-Robertsgatan. This name gave the name to the hotel -
Hotel Lilla Roberts. It belongs to the international network of small but luxurious hotels of the Kämp Group.
In this case, the interior designer, together with the owner of the hotel, chose an art deco theme for him - to attract guests who love chic more than functionality (in contrast to the aforementioned Indigo, where the emphasis is on functionality and comfort). The Art Deco theme is visible even from the street: the main entrance is marked by a gleaming canopy, and the hotel name is placed vertically in neon letters on the dark, modernist facade of the 1930s.
The new hotel is arranged (partly we can say: squeezed) into three different buildings. A beautiful building in the spirit of Art Nouveau by the architect Selim A. Lindqvist (1909) and the construction of the then chief architect of the Finnish capital Gunnar Taucher (1931) overlook the street. The third part, previously occupied by workshops and technical services, faces the courtyard. All three buildings belonged to Helsinki: the municipality built them for the city's energy company.
From the 1970s until the transformation into a hotel, these buildings were occupied by the Metropolitan Police Department. Therefore, many of the original interiors, especially in the oldest part, were turned into utilitarian spaces: for example, the most spectacular part of the first floor was used as a dressing room, so the beautiful Art Nouveau windows were sealed and the building from the street side was "blinded".
Adaptation to new needs and interior decoration - in this case I deliberately use the word "decoration" - were entrusted to the interior design bureau Puroplan Oy, headed by Jaakko Puro. This workshop specializes in hotels and restaurants.
Among the employees of the bureau there are also architects who have developed the layout for the new hotel. As a result, 130 rooms of three categories appeared - "comfort" (about 25 m2), "style" (35 m2) and "luxury".
The police had several saunas, which are now also converted into rooms. However, the hotel has a gym. I myself missed the sauna and rooftop terrace, and in my style room, the bathroom - elegant and spacious - lacked a bath. In a luxury hotel in our latitudes, a guest would undoubtedly appreciate the opportunity to take a hot bath after a busy day or a tiring transatlantic flight.
As mentioned above, the hotel chain and interior designers settled on the Art Deco theme. Therefore, the corridors are full of black doors, and the floor there is covered with a black carpet with a small white star. The rooms are also designed in black and white with some nuances (in the "suites" they also use brownish tones). There are decorative vases everywhere, especially in the area of the bar and the reception desk, although this area, on the whole, turned out to be quite good (apart from the noise from the drinking guests, which is not expected in a hotel of this class). And this is not only a matter of taste: a hotel of this class should always pay a lot of attention to fine-tuning its atmosphere, all the details and service.
It is fortunate for the city that the elegant rounded corner now accommodates the large Krog Roba restaurant: beautiful windows are reopened to the street, and the entrance is used again. The restaurant can also be accessed from the hotel: breakfast is served here.
Here the authors of the interior dispersed! In the restaurant you can find several overlapping "fashionable" themes: Viennese chairs, soft blue-green sofas, industrial-style lamps, plaster imitating rough concrete, leather chairs in "Danish" style. Finally, each guest of the hotel receives a large Iittala cup with a "fairytale" design inspired by the production of Leos Janacek's opera "The Adventures of a Cheating Fox" at the Finnish National Opera. Designer and artist Klaus Haapaniemi created the decorations for it, and his design is placed on the cup. Incidentally, it is designed for both coffee and tea: a functional solution worthy of a five-star hotel.
Poor Selim A. Lindqvist, one of the most talented and original Finnish modern architects! A little more respect for its noble ground floor space would come in handy. Now the restaurant has become overly fashionable - and trends, as we know, come and go. The Swedish word krog refers to a “local” bar rather than an expensive hotel restaurant. Perhaps the goal was to attract residents of the surrounding neighborhoods there - to drink beer in the evening.
For all that, a very positive effect of the reconstruction is that it brought new life to a previously dark and quiet street. The location of the hotel is suitable not only for a businessman on a business trip, but also for a tourist interested in culture: the museums of Finnish architecture and design are located across the block, next to it is the so-called design district. The Esplanade and Stockmann Department Store are easily reachable on foot, while tram 10 will take you quickly to the Opera House, the Music Center and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. Also nearby are picturesque seaside parks such as Kaivopuisto and Tähtitorninmäki.
But it is still somewhat confusing when two such externally different buildings inside are solved in exactly the same way. And I would also like to remind you that Art Deco, as a real, complex style, nevertheless recognizes softer colors than black, white and gold: suffice it to recall Hercule Poirot's apartment, as shown in the famous television series.
