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| 03:47 Fri 16 May 2008 |
25 Hours Hotel, Frankfurt |
Sunday, 25 March 2007 |
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 Goldman 25 Hours Hotel Frankfurt’s Wohnzimmer with its stiff green armchairs protected by white crocheted doilies may remind you of gloomy Hansel and Gretchen readings at Great Auntie Gertrude’s. But fear not, she’s not likely to show up here, and the reading material is far less grim, too. The cool pink and pale-green lighting fixtures will also tip you off -- there’s much more going on here than reading. The Wohnzimmer (which means Living Room) is part of the free-flowing ground-floor space of the boutiquey Goldman 25 Hours Hotel catering to “busy and cosmopolitan urban nomads.” It opened in December 2006 in Hanauer Landstrasse in Frankfurt’s Ostend (that’s East end). Most cities have an old dilapidated industrial area that is being revitalized with former industrial buildings now housing design firms, fashion shops, clubs and cafes. Hanauer Landstrasse is one of such districts in Frankfurt. It is transforming itself slowly but funkily, and 25 Hours’ owner, developer-visionary Ardi Goldman has his hands in much of it. He is known for repurposing many buildings in Hanauer Landstrasse, most notably the massive Frankfurt Union brewery. Goldman is also responsible for many of Frankfurt’s top clubs including King Kamehameha, Sansibar and the Cocoon Club. “One person has an eye for halls, another for banks, I have an eye for atmosphere, I see habitats,” says Goldman.  Establishing a cool hotel here had long been part of Goldman’s vision for this district. The seven-storey, 49-room Goldman 25 Hours is also a repurposed building. It is the old Hotel Henniger Hof although former guests would not recognize the building inside or out. The Wohnzimmer is just one of eclectically juxtaposed spaces in the hotel. Each floor has a unique color scheme and each room is themed with its own story. Schokolade macht nicht dick (Chocolate doesn’t make you fat) and Grun ist die Liebe (Love is green) are examples of the themes that range from romantic to childish to beatnik to casino. The rooms have identical basic furniture, but each is accessorized to express the story of the particular room by fabrics from mfta and Romo, furniture by the Swedish Snowcrash, accessories from Designers Guild and lamps from Flo. Frankfurt’s 25 Hours Hotel is part of the Design Hotels brand and second in the string of Goldman’s hotels. The first opened in Hamburg in 2003 and additional hotels are opening in at least Cologne and Berlin in 2007/2008 Plans include hotels also in Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid and Nice. A night in the pale-green and whimsical kiddie-themed room at Goldman 25 Hours Hotel Frankfurt brings us back to Brothers Grimm and to total agreement with their closing words in Hansel and Gretel: “Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness.” By Tuija Seipell |
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