Dutch designers appointed to transform Bretton Hall into luxury hotel
Delayed plans to develop the Grade II-listed Bretton Hall in Wakefield, west Yorkshire, as a luxury 120-bedroom hotel have forward with the appointment of the Amsterdam-based interior designer MüllerVanTol.
MüllerVanTol will work on first phase of the project in collaboration with British designer Ilse Crawford, whose previous work includes designs for Soho House. Planning permission to transform the former university buildings at Bretton Hall into a hotel was granted to Leeds-based property company Rushbond to 2013, with an expected opening date of 2015.
Set within 500 acres of landscaped gardens and parkland adjacent to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), the hotel will be located within the existing Georgian mansion house of Bretton Hall and a contemporary new building housing a bedroom wing. The hotel is now expected to launch in 2019.
A teacher training college opened in Bretton Hall College in 1949 before becoming a performing arts college on its merger with the University of Leeds in 2001.
The property's redevelopment will include two theatres, a seminar space and separate exhibition area, which will form new conferencing facilities, with further accommodation, work and educational spaces planned for future phases.
Bas van Tol of MüllerVanTol said: "Bretton Hall offers an unrivalled opportunity to create a very individual destination, taking the rich history and legacy of Bretton Hall as a hotbed of creative thinking and talent, and re-imaging it as a unique destination for overnight and longer stays, conferencing, exhibitions and events."
In Amsterdam MüllerVanTol was involved the transformation of the Volkshotel, a 1960s former newspaper office, into a contemporary hotel.
Mark Finch, real estate director of Rushbond, said the future of Bretton Hall as "an original, top-quality, outstandingly designed hotel and creative campus" will be unparalleled in the north of England.
"It was imperative for us when choosing a design company that we find someone who also shares our vision to create a destination that is exceptional in every detail," he explained. "MüllerVanTol have delivered projects around the world that have design excellence at their core, creating atmospheres sensitive to the previous lives of the often historically significant buildings they design for."
Planning permission granted for 120-bedroom luxury hotel at the Bretton Hall estate >>
Luxury hotel for Yorkshire Sculpture Park moves closer >>
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