The unique touch of the Waldorf Astoria is being sought to elevate the overall level of the aging Zhuhai Holiday Resort Hotel main building while significant transformations are going on all around it.

The Waldorf, a Hilton Worldwide luxury asset, would upgrade the iconic hotel (Zhuhai Du Jia Cun) at 9 East Shihua Road in Jida, Xiangzhou District. It would be done in the context of its honored history as "China's first five-star hotel for leisure and holidaymaking."

The hotel resort opened in April 1981 with 500 deluxe rooms and 89 villas. It integrates conferences, holidaymaking, business gatherings, and tourism. The resort has been one of the preferred government affairs reception venues in Guangdong Province and is popular as well for wedding receptions.

Cooperation details are still under discussion with Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, which was founded in 2006 and is the flagship brand of the Hilton portfolio.

Villas removed, new hotel in background [Photo by Liu Jiacheng / Zhuhai Daily]

Meanwhile, villas along East Shihua Road began falling on Feb 27. In their heyday they constituted a complete and unique group of British-style cottages enhanced with French and Spanish architectural touches. They harmonized with elegant country gardens, a landscape-style swimming pool, nightclub, and tennis courts.  

They will be replaced by four new support buildings with a business focus. The foundation will be excavated this year and construction is to be completed in 2020, with total floorage of the new structures approaching 1.2 hectares (3 acres).

According to Zhuhai Jiuzhou Holdings Property Development, the Holiday Resort Hotel will become an international first-class coastal urban comprehensive zone integrating holidaymaking, characteristic brand shops, and high-end business services relying on location, environment, and landscaping.

High-grade villa garden

Old administrative buildings and part of the villa area will give way to a new architectural complex. The Phase 1 new hotel building is furnished and soon to open. Aedas UK, the designer, says it "takes root in the resort forest and thrives around an artificial lake with the new commercial center and health-care center like a flourishing tree."

The $100-million Phase 2 involves construction of a 120-m office tower, 80-m mixed-use building, four-story podium retail street, garden areas, restaurants and parking facilities with green public spaces linking all functional blocks.

"The conventional core of the office tower splits into two to bring daylight and natural ventilation, create a series of vertical garden and provide a green leisure communal space," according to Aedas. An open retail street is designed in response to the local climate, drawing nature into the commercial environment. The gas station near the intersection of East Shihua Road and Lovers Avenue will be relocated. 

Aedas-designed and soon-to-open 17-floor 200-room hotel

[File Photos courtesy WeChat ID: neighbor_zh]

Founded in New York City in 1893, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel has hosted many famous Chinese dignitaries including Li Hung-chang (Li Hongzhang), a political leader in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Other historic Waldorf guests included US president John F Kennedy and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.  

Waldorf Astoria Beijing [Photos courtesy www.waldorfastoriahotels.com.cn]