Four Seasons Budapest

Overview

Situated along the Danube River, the Gresham Palace is a historic Art Nouveau building in Budapest that opened in 1906. Named after the English Financier Sir Thomas Gresham, the palace was converted into a luxury hotel in the late 1990's. The building's renovation added fourteen new elevators, new HVAC system, laundry and kitchens, while maintaining the historic character of the original building.

We provided acoustic engineering services to Formanyelv Architects for the hotel, which opened in 2004.

Highlights

• The pre-existing floor consisted of terra-cotta arch, covered with sand and a wood floor. The new floor system was designed for both structural capacity and acoustic isolation.
• Acoustic isolation took two forms: Sound reduction between guest rooms and reduction of impact noise (heel tapping) to the room below.
• Outside traffic noise was reduced by providing an exterior of thermal double glazing and an interior sull sash of heavy glass which reduced street noise to less than the background from the guest room fan-coil unit.
• The spa, including swimming pool and whirl pools, is located on the sixth floor above guest rooms. Our engineers used special floor construction and vibration isolation to attenuate structure-borne noise to the guest rooms below.
• Similarly, the 1,500-kilowatt diesel generator is located directly above a guest room. We designed special double floor and room-within-room construction to contain the noise from the generator. Additionally, we used special mufflers and silencers to prevent diesel exhaust noise from reaching either rooms within the hotel or adjacent neighbors.
• Our team specified acoustic treatments for front-of-house spaces such as the ballroom and lobby. For the lobby we introduced sound-absorbing, spray-on plaster which was tinted to the architect’s requirements. The material has a slightly rough texture reminiscent of antique plaster or stucco finishes, thus providing both sound absorption and an appropriate appearance.