Hilton Tower

The Hilton Hotel on Park Lane has repeatedly been crowned the “ugliest building in London”. Built in the 1960s, the design ignored its context, while providing utilitarian guestrooms and public spaces. This competition entry for a major refurbishment of the hotel aimed to redress these flaws by fundamental rethinking of the building configuration, while retaining most of the existing structural frame.

The proposals reconfigured the core, including stairs which currently obstruct views to Hyde Park and London beyond, and rearrange the massing so that the building reads as a cluster if slim towers, rather than a single volume. The existing podium is removed to allow for the tower to continue to ground level, and for the introduction of a generous entrance facing the park.