The groundbreaking event on Thursday 6th February to mark start of construction of a 500-bed Radisson SAS Hotel at Stansted Airport is another milestone in Skanska’s relationship with Radisson SAS.
Following its successful work building the Radisson SAS Hotel at Manchester Airport, Skanska was invited by the company to become its design and build partner in developing the Stansted Airport hotel from concept stage.
Skanska appointed leading architect Aukett Europe to develop a detailed design, worked with Radisson SAS on agreeing project costs and assembled a supply chain. This early involvement enabled Skanska’s project team to design a hotel that met the full needs of the operator, while also eradicating any buildability issues before work started on site.
Skanska also played an important role in the hotel’s planning application by producing detailed information which BAA Lynton, the property development arm of Stansted’s owners BAA, used to obtain final planning permission last year.
Now on site, Skanska is using the latest construction techniques to build the hotel in a fast-track programme. These include bathroom pods manufactured in Denmark which are slotted in on arrival and pre-cutting the bedroom’s dry-lined plasterboard to minimize waste as well as speed up the construction process.
The building programme is 96-weeks, with the first 350 bedrooms and main hotel facilities, such as restaurant, bars, leisure centre with swimming pool and conference facilities, opening in July 2004. The remaining 150 rooms will be handed over in November 2004, completing the first hotel at Stansted Airport to have direct pedestrian access to the newly extended terminal building.
The hotel’s design is in keeping with the distinctive terminal building, featuring a glass exterior complete with an eye catching five-storey atrium in the centre housing the reception.