Hotel seeking to double size of conference centre lodge annexe

AS the Harrogate International Centre continues to expand, a proposed 50-bedroom annexe in the grounds of the adjoining Majestic Hotel, which already has approval, is being doubled in size and linked to the conference and exhibition complex.

Paramount Hotels Ltd, which owns the Majestic, has applied to Harrogate Council for planning permission for the 107-bedroom "lodge" hotel. It is intended to build the new five storey hotel in the south-east corner of the 7.8-acre grounds of the Majestic.

Its designers, the Howarth Litchfield Partnership, were asked to use the 50-bed hotel as a starting point and expand it to complement the four-star facilities of the Majestic. The concept includes a ground floor public concourse linking the new hotel with the Harrogate International Centre (HIC).

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Revised plans for a 3,000 square metre extension to the exhibition space at the HIC, which was planned to open in June 2011, are currently being prepared after the borough council's planning committee rejected elements of the 13m scheme in November.

The plans – the first phase of a 48m expansion to keep Harrogate in the top three of the conference and exhibition centre league – already have Yorkshire Forward agreement to provide matched funding. But councillors criticised the design of a new entrance on King's Road.

The site of the new hotel, which would have a footprint of 812 square metres and a gross internal floor area of 4,247 square metres, is currently occupied by redundant greenhouses and other small buildings. The site slopes approximately 11.5 metres from the north-west to the south-east.

A series of meetings has been held with officers of Harrogate Council and both computer generated and actual three dimensional models have been used to create the final design. The hotel started out at 130 bedrooms but has been revised down to 107.

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Howarth Litchfield said: "The whole composition of the HIC is rather incongruous in the context of Harrogate and the conservation area."

Architects said the HIC extension would add a further "large contemporary angular volume" presenting a 16-metre wall as the stop to the view across the Majestic's gardens.

They told the council that the approved 50-bedroom hotel would be significantly smaller than the first phase of the HIC extension and would add to the incongruity in that corner of the conservation area.

"As such an alternative approach is considered more appropriate," they added.

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Howarth Litchfield said the 107-bed lodge hotel was in scale with the proposed HIC phase one extension and would provide a fitting "end stop" to the gardens:

"Whilst being contemporary in style, the proposed architecture respects the Majestic and presents a symmetrical composition in response to the formal gardens."

The plans are expected to be considered by the borough council later in the year. Howarth Litchfield added: "The design strategy for the hotel has been nurtured to support the ongoing local development initiatives so as to ensure that Harrogate maintains and raises further its excellent reputation as a leading exhibition and conference destination."

Initial consultation has already taken place with local residents and Paramount Hotels say the majority of responses were positive. Issues raised included the need for traffic lights at the Ripon Road-Springfield Avenue junction.

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Conference and exhibition business, which has expanded since the 2,000-seat conference centre was opened in 1981, brings around 150m into the economy of the Harrogate district each year and provides employment for 3,500 people.

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