Among the many most startling additions to the fashionable skyline are the Flame Towers, a trio of sky-high constructions that resemble tongues of fireside reaching excessive over the Caspian Sea.
Designed by US structure agency HOK, and with Tower 1 standing at 182 meters, they’re the tallest buildings in Azerbaijan.
And guests can keep in them — one constructing’s residential, one is for workplace use, whereas the third, the 165-meter-tall Fairmont Baku, is a recent five-star resort.
Enter the flame
The towers will be seen from nearly anyplace within the metropolis, however evening is after they really come alive. Orange, pink and pink LED lights dance throughout the towers like burning flames.
For some in Baku, they’re now a logo of dwelling.
“You’ll be able to see Flame Towers as you fly into the airport, lit up with multicolored lights and shining the best way,” dressmaker and media skilled Nina Zandnia tells CNN Journey. “They’re the signal that lets all people know they’ve reached Azerbaijan.”
So what’s it like to remain in one of many nation’s most acquainted landmarks? It is definitely no extraordinary resort.
The daring, generally bombastic statements start with the dramatic exterior and maintain going all the best way inside.
The venue’s seven-story foyer is dominated by an extravagant chandelier, utilizing 5 kilometers of strands, adorned with 840 lights and greater than 600,000 crystal beads, and weighing a whopping two metric tons.
Visitors should not anticipate to listen to it utilized in any informal jam periods, it is now solely performed by high pianists on particular events.
Come night, the Flame Towers placed on a light-weight present loved throughout the town.
Courtesy Fairmont Baku
Sea views
The tower is dwelling to greater than 300 rooms, suites and serviced flats, that vary in value from $170 to upwards of $5,000 an evening.
Even essentially the most fundamental supply ceiling-to-floor home windows and sumptuously giant double beds. The décor is a recent luxurious combine, with plush carpets and fashionable furnishings. Spacious and comfy, every room within the resort both seems out over the town or throughout the bay into the ocean.
Crisp and glamorous as it’s, it does have an fringe of company blandness that falls in need of the regal vibes felt, for instance, within the close by 4 Seasons.
A typical one-bedroom suite on the seventeenth ground presents views of the Caspian Sea and, if eligible, entry to the Fairmont Gold lounge on the nineteenth ground, which comes with a personal check-in space and concierge service.
The super-fast elevator to the seventeenth opens onto a spectacular touchdown with views throughout the bay. As soon as contained in the suite, there is a foyer space, are extra jaw-dropping views, an office-slash-dining room, with wood desk and a four-seater eating desk.
Then there is a beneficiant, richly carpeted lounge with an outsized couch and jazzy signature chair. The separate bed room has an enormous king-sized mattress. There’s an unlimited walk-in closet stacked with hangers, drawers and laundry necessities that leads into a big rest room full with bathtub and bathe room.
In each of the suite’s two loos, there are bespoke toiletries — sure, your identify is printed on the shampoo, moisturizer and conditioner bottle. It is a memento simply asking to be taken dwelling.
Fairmont Gold: There are panoramic views from the nineteenth ground.
Courtesy Fairmont Baku
The royal suite
Good touches, however does the resort have celeb enchantment? Sure, says, Zumrud Ismayilova, the resort’s PR and advertising and marketing supervisor. Names usually are not named, however the record apparently contains leaders, royals and celebrities.
“Now we have had many VIP company keep on the resort, however we might by no means disclose who they’re,” she tells CNN Journey. “When our company come to stick with us, they anticipate privateness and confidentiality and that’s precisely what we give them.”
Positioned on the very tip of the flame, the Royal Suite presents panoramic views of each metropolis and sea. There are two bedrooms, each with en suite loos, a lounge, personal eating room, research, a visitor rest room, a kitchen and a grand hallway with chandelier — 375 sq. meters (4,036 sq. ft) of dwelling house in whole.
“The VIP or household will keep within the suite, however the remainder of their celebration tends to take over your entire ground. Now we have further rooms for safety and employees, and a set for additional members of the family,” explains Ismayilova.
There’s an open-plan dwelling space, personal research, a eating room match for for 12 or extra company and a totally geared up kitchen (for the servants, in fact). However the primary attraction is the grand en suite rest room with an enormous oyster-shaped bathtub full with window view over the bay.
Wellness
The lodges facilities are a combined bag. There’s a sublime spa unfold over two flooring of the resort with indoor pool, sauna, sizzling tub, hammam and areas to unwind. There’s additionally a totally geared up health club.
The fantastically designed Sky Backyard permits company the luxurious of enjoyable on the sundeck or benefiting from the poolside sauna whereas looking on the sea. There’s an S-shaped rooftop pool and outside bar, which look higher from a distance than shut up.
It is best visited come night. When the solar’s up, the towers replicate the solar and amplify its warmth, making this space a frying pan.
Meals and leisure
As you’d hope from a flowery resort inside one of many nation’s greatest landmarks, the primary Le Bistro restaurant presents an array of native Azerbaijani wines and delicacies. The Balcon café presents specialty teas and desserts, in addition to sushi within the afternoons.
There’s additionally the Nur lounge which is a cool setting serving cocktails and snacks, and is an effective pre-drinks website to soak within the ambiance earlier than shifting onto the resort’s Jazz Membership, a neighborhood establishment.
“We at all times suggest folks to take a look at the Jazz Membership after 9 p.m., as a result of that is when it actually will get going. It is extremely popular with each the resort company and the locals, and we at all times supply one thing new to maintain folks entertained,” Ismayilova says.
There are two issues that almost all lodges are unable to supply — a shopping center and cinema. Fairmont Flame Towers presents each.
Park Cinema supplies company (and members of the general public) with six screens, together with IMAX, exhibiting the most recent Arabic, English and Russian language movies.
Subsequent door is the Flame Towers Buying Mall, due for completion in early 2020. Luxurious manufacturers, excessive road names, cafes and eating places are all set to take up residency.
