Atlantic Hotel
Bordeaux
Extensive restructuring
and extension of a hotel
[ATELIER] CAUMES
Facing the Bordeaux Saint-Jean railway station, the Hotel Atlantic opened its doors to the public in September 2021. This represented the conclusion of a complex, 24-month-long project that involved the restoration of two cut stone buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries and the creation of a contemporary extension. There were numerous spatial challenges; the matching of existing and newly built floors led to the creation of a series of rooms with atypical volumes, some with cathedral ceilings, some as duplexes, and others containing a “sunken” portion. Managed by Mercure, this new 4-star hotel features 72 rooms as well as a contemporary brasserie. It forms part of the urban renewal of this entrance into Bordeaux.
Construction
Located in the very centre of town near a railway station and public transportation hub for buses, trams, cars, taxis, and a passenger drop-off area, the hotel was an extremely complex worksite for several reasons: detecting all structural weaknesses and preparing for the cleaning of the existing buildings; protecting the buildings using stanchions to avoid its collapse; and lining the basement due to a perched water table…
Plan
The main difficulty lay in connecting the newly created flooring to the already existing one. Our solution consisted of a series of rooms with atypical volumes that ensure a smooth transition between the contemporary floor structure and the windows of the old façades.
The contemporary façade’s abstraction represents a conscious break from the other Haussmann-era façades in the area.
