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Hotel: Helping contemporary complement heritage: Hamilton supports renovation of Lithuanian waterfront hotel.
The Project: The Port of Klaipėda is one of the few ice-free seaports in northernmost Europe, set in Klaipėda, Lithuania. In amongst the traditional buildings now sits the newly-established Michaelson Boutique Hotel, housed in a reconstructed warehouse on the Dangė River quay.
The Michaelson Boutique Hotel was created to become an attraction for Klaipėda’s guests and residents, and aspires to become a leading maritime heritage monument. The original two-storey building, with a further two storeys in the roof space, is steeped in maritime history. It has received an extremely sympathetic reconstruction that has transformed it into a 16-room hotel with a cosy restaurant, multi-functional space and bar area that opens onto a courtyard next to the Dangė River.
The utmost efforts have been taken to preserve as much of the original building and its infrastructure as possible as it enters its new phase in history. Many decisions were taken with this in mind, with the most important concept being that the reproduction or imitation of antiquity must be avoided. The old must effortlessly merge with the contemporary, including new structures and materials.
The Brief: While retaining as much of the building’s heritage as possible, the new hotel must also deliver key modern elements and meet the latest technological needs of its customers. Known for its quality products, service and sensitivity in the renovation of heritage properties, Hamilton Litestat was tasked with creating, supplying and installing a scheme of switch plates and sockets that would be in-keeping with the contemporary needs of the hotel, while also being sympathetic to the building’s design and infrastructure.
The Solution: Hamilton’s project team visited the development to assess the requirements and get a real feel for the building. It was soon realised that several of the sockets would need to be fitted to the structure’s historic masonry and beams, which have been carefully preserved.
To avoid cutting into these to seat the sockets, Hamilton suggested using surface mount boxes. The client was looking for something more than standard off-the-shelf boxes so Hamilton went above and beyond, designing and manufacturing bespoke wooden surface mount boxes, which were sprayed in the appropriate colour using Hamilton’s house spray department. This tailor-made solution meant that the sockets could be mounted on top of the beams and masonry. It also provided a flexible solution, as if the socket or its fitting needs changing in the future, it can be easily replaced or simply moved with tube cabling to another location.
To give the building a sense of purity, only natural materials were selected for the interior refurbishment: wood, glass, stone and metal. For the switch plates and sockets, Hamilton selected its Sheer CFX® range to blend effortlessly and seamlessly with this concept. A popular style in the Hamilton range, the Sheer CFX® suite has a modern, minimalist feel of quality with concealed fixings thanks to Hamilton’s patented four-point CFX® clipping system. A Satin Stainless finish was selected, linking with the building’s history of metal trading and other structures in the vicinity, such as the swing footbridge and nearby towering old boathouse frame.
Toggle switch plates were chosen to complement the industrial heritage of the building, with both European sockets and USB charging ports incorporated for guests’ ease of use. UK sockets were also installed to provide international guests with additional power options.
The Result: Hamilton’s attention to detail and understanding of a period property’s needs has helped create a visually outstanding renovation that perfectly merges history, heritage and modern requirements in a chic and stylish way.
“We are extremely happy with the finished result,” says Gintautas Bertašius, Co-Owner & Property Developer. “We first came into contact with Hamilton at the Hotel Show in Dubai and soon got back in touch about the Michaelson Boutique Hotel project. A representative visited the development promptly and explained in detail all the production advantages and opportunities with the brand’s products and the design options. It was clearly a professional and thorough service. We know of Hamilton for its quality and we hope to enjoy these products for a long time.
“The design of the products is delicate and distinguished from other producers. For example, the solution that we chose was partly due to no fingerprints remaining on the switches. The carefully executed solution for mounting the sockets on top of the wood beams and masonry truly shows the team’s understanding of heritage and period properties – they couldn’t have been more considerate of this.”
Seb Bone, Hamilton’s Export Sales Manager, added: “We are delighted with the feedback received on this project, both from the client and from those within the renovation and hotel industries. The style of the Sheer collection perfectly complements the hotel’s design while giving a nod to its history. We’ve been able to incorporate the most modern of fittings, such as USB ports, that don’t feel out of place due to their careful integration using bespoke wooden surface mount boxes.”
The project has already received several favourable reviews from specialists and the Michaelson Boutique Hotel is being named as one of the most successful recent examples of heritage reconstruction.
Products Installed:
Control Plates: Sheer CFX® 84C Collection - All mounted on Single/Double Satin Stainless plates with Black Plastic inserts.
84C C11 SS-B - Hotel Card Switch. 1 Gang 10A(6AX) On/Off with Blue LED Locator
84C T22 - 2 Gang 20AX 2way Toggle
84C T23 - 3 Gang 20AX 2way Toggle
Sheer CFX® EuroFix - All mounted on Single/Double Satin Stainless plates with Black Plastic inserts.
84C US13B - 1 Gang 13A Unswitched Socket
84C EURO2 + MOD-GER 16A B - 1 Gang International Unswitched Socket Module
84C EURO4 + MOD-GER 16A B - 2 Gang International Unswitched Socket Module
84C J12B - I Gang Data Outlet Module
84C 2J12B - 2 Gang Data Outlet Module
Bespoke: Single and Double Surface Mount Boxes. Fabricated in wood and finished in a Satin Stainless lacquer.