London’s 30 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, is set to undergo a ‘re-use’ as it is transformed from the US Embassy into a luxury hotel.
Through “sensitive and adaptive re-use” the London Chancery for the US Embassy at 30 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, will become a 137-bedroom hotel with shops, restaurants, bars and a spa, Doha News reported.
Qatari Diar’s (QD) – the real estate arm of Qatar Investment Authority – plans to convert the US Embassy in London into a luxury hotel and has received government approval this week, according to the project’s architect.
The re-use will include extending it to span nine stories, three of which will be underground, with a glass pavilion on the roof and the ground floor open to the public.
In a statement, UK-based David Chipperfield Architects said existing security bollards and fencing around the complex will be removed, while the symbolic, gilded-aluminium bald eagle will remain in place atop the building.
The statement added that Westminster City Council granted conditional planning permission to the proposed project on Tuesday.
Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. bought the 1960, Grade II listed Modernist building when the US elected to new premises at Nine Elms, Battersea.
The new US Embassy building is expected to open next year.
After at least eight months of public consultations over the design of the new facilities, the planning approval was granted and, in an online consultation document, the developers assured that the main architectural features will be retained and the transformation would “breathe new life into this significant building”.
QD also has plans to open roads between the embassy building and the adjacent Grosvenor Square Gardens.
Some of these however, are currently closed to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic owing to security measures.
