The Rebirth of the Berengaria Hotel
The Outside
The final part of the tour involved the pool area. This has basically been gutted and will be replaced with two new pools and a spa area. Once finished though, it will have to have the same look and feel as the original.
Respecting The Environment
Andronikos was at pains to point out that the project is built in a forest and that they had to respect the forest. They couldn't just chop all the trees down.
Tree Protection
Some of the trees they needed to protect, so they are incorporating them into the designs. These trees grew in the confined space of the building and swimming pool area, their roots didn't spread out across, they went down. This enabled bbf to save them, as they could construct the spa without damaging the root system. So they brought in specialists who showed them how to protect them properly during the building work.
It isn't just the trees that are being protected, like this famous couple here. The fauna are also being looked after. bbf will be installing several bird houses for swallows. This is more complicated than nailing a few boxes to trees. Swallows have specific needs, as their nests have to have direct access.
As far as Andronikos was concerned, "that's all part of developing something in a forest, and doing it right. And not just trying to exploit it".
Amen to that.
Useful Links
I came away from the tour really impressed with bbf. It is rare to find a big company that is so ethical. They are striving to do the best job possible with the renovation, and I wish them every success. I shall leave you with a number of links for further reading.
The first is for bbf's site devoted to the hotel. This covers everything from the history of the hotel to the scope of the project itself.
We also include a separate link that takes you straight to the history portion.
To view the film we made of the tour, see here:
Next there is a link to the article we wrote in 2020, which shows you what the hotel was like before renovation.
Finally there is a link to a virtual tour we created.
Finally, I would like to thank Artem Burtsev, Andronikos Spyrou and Alina Novitskaya for their hospitality and for giving me the opportunity to witness first-hand the amazing work their company is doing here.
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