Entering the Hotel Zoo Berlin at Kurfürstendamm, you feel like in a noble setting for a movie. The entrance area of the design hotel surprises with unblemished brick walls. You walk into the hotel over a bright green carpet with a leopard pattern, created by the fashion designer Princess Diane of Fürstenberg, to an almost theatrically staged reception and further to a huge entrance hall, which is called living room here. This living room with its unusual proportions, huge mirrors and an oversized door, that promises unimagined miracles, one almost imagines oneself in a modern version of Hogwarts.
The house, which today is located next to the Apple Store, was built in the 19th century as a lordly private home of the then renowned architect Alfred Messel. It was converted into a hotel at the beginning of the 20th century and enjoyed its heyday as a partner hotel of the film festival Berlinale in the fifties and sixties. Many brilliant premieres took place here. The stars of the time like Romy Schneider, Hilde Knef, Erich Kästner, Brigitte Bardot and the Italian movie star Gina Lollobrigida stayed here.
In November 2014, the hotel reopened after a two-year break. As a designer for the redesign, the US-American Dayna Lee was found, who is actually a specialist for film sets. Before this engagement she had designed only one single hotel lobby in America. Dayna Lee in cooperation with with the Babelsberg film studios near Berlin created a hotel interior that is decorative and innovative, yet tries to live up to the charm of the historic building. The fabrics and materials used, such as velvet and leather appear noble and elegant and spread an almost cosmopolitan flair. Her design is appealing to today’s stars such as Bratt Pitt, Bruce Willis and Tilda Swinton, to do some current name dropping.
With its unusual design concept, the hotel has at once become member of design hotels. The luxury of the house is visible in small details such as rain showers in all rooms or bed linen and bathrobes created by Parisian designer Maison Martin Marziela. All 130 rooms and 14 suites are individually designed and thus look differently.
The reorientation of the Hotel Zoo Berlin (formerly: Hotel am Zoo) certainly contributes to the revival of the Kurfürstendamm and the brilliant comeback of the City West in recent years. Berliners particularly like the elegant fine dining restaurant Grace, which is located on the ground floor of the hotel with its own entrance. For guests of the city, the two spacious penthouse suites with their own fireplaces should be the epitome of luxury.
