TIME TEAM

摘要

old photos are not just for nostalgia. They can be a useful design resource, as London's Claridge's Hotel reveals with its newly-refurbished entrance on Brook Street. Since its completion in 1929, this beautiful example of Art Deco architecture lost many of its finer touches in unsympathetic modifications and repairs. Blair Associates Architecture turned detective to piece together those elements and return the entrance to its former glory. I have worked on Claridge's since 2004. As a grade II listed building any work must respect the existing historic fabric, so we worked with the hotel to build up the background required for refurbishment. The team began with the archives of the hotel, but to unearth the complete picture we had to spread our net wider to the RIBA libraries and the London Metropolitan Archives.