Tracing the path of Hotel Kastri
and we are proud to have been a part of it
After the peak of the financial crisis in Greece, the bank system consolidated significantly. This process saw the major banks absorbing (almost) all the smaller ones. In particular, Piraeus Bank absorbed 7 banks in the past 5 years. One of the biggest acquisitions was that of the Agricultural Bank of Greece, which, being a state bank for almost 80 years, came with significant real estate. This real estate portfolio includes many interesting buildings, such as the Serpieri Mansion in the center of Athens, the Archive Building in Tavros and the Zakynthos Branch we talked about in a previous article.
One of these properties is the Kastri Hotel, situated to the North of Athens at the homonymous suburb, along with the adjacent Education Center. The hotel was built some time in the 1920’s, around the time when Kastri (the suburb) along with Ekali, Psychiko and Filothei were designed according to the contemporary Garden City Movement. It is interesting to note that until today all four neighborhoods are still upscale parts of Athens. During the same period the Papandreou family bought the adjacent Mansion Serenity, which would later become central to the political life of the country. Rumor has it that the Hotel was owned by engineer Mavroleon, and passed to the Agricultural Bank at an unspecified period during the mid-20th century.
The history of Kastri Hotel and its cultural significance is highlighted by its multiple appearances in cinema. The earliest I could find is this dramatic noir shot from Lost Dreams, a 1961 film.
It kept appearing in movies through the years, and I found references up to 1988 with a tv-movie named after the hotel, but a cursory glance through the movie suggests that it was not actually filmed on premises.
During the late 80’s the Agricultural Bank expanded the complex with an education/conference center, certified for hosting seminars in the sectors of Finance, Marketing, Education, Agriculture and IT. The hotel was relegated to a hosting facility for the needs of the Education and Conference center.
In 2012, the Agricultural Bank was split into a good and bad bank and the good bank was acquired by Piraeus Bank. In 2013 the new administration created a new company to manage the education center and decided that the hotel deserved a new life as a contemporary luxury hotel in the outskirts of Athens.
Enter d-e
Here is when we come into the picture.
The bank hired us to provide project management services, structural design and supervision for the complete renovation of the historic hotel. The hotel is comprised of two buildings, the main building and the guest houses.
We couldn’t find anything about the hotel in official archives. Thus everything had to be assessed by inspection. The new design included moving a load bearing masonry wall and the removal of several columns. The building had obviously gone through several renovations and expansions and several different building methods were used through the years.
Although the majority of the structure is comprised of load-bearing masonry walls, concrete beams were also discovered during assessment. Our assumption is that despite concrete being used since the ancient times it was still an exotic material in 1920’s Greece and was used only where absolutely needed. One such example is a ballroom which needed large unsupported spans. The concrete beams occasionally fuse with the masonry wall without supporting columns.
Bricks, masonry, concrete and steel all mix in every possible combination. Significant reinforcements were required in order to bring the ageing building to current standards.
The main building was depending on the outer masonry walls and a light inner concrete space frame. The load bearing capacity of the inner concrete structure was very low and thus deemed insignificant. It was replaced by new concrete space frame that supports the building in combination with the outer masonry wall, which was itself reinforced with new mortar and resin injections.
The slabs were either solid or ribbed concrete with ceramic bricks filling in the voids. Others were made of steel sections, lined with marble slabs and then filled with concrete. Some of them needed reinforcement with steel sections on the underside.
After the renovation, the hotel looks like this, and nobody can imagine what happened looking at the before and after photos.
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