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 up to date five-star lodge.
Enter the flame
The towers might be seen from virtually 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 may see Flame Towers as you fly into the airport, lit up with multicolored lights and shining the best way,” clothier 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 actually no peculiar lodge.
The daring, typically bombastic statements start with the dramatic exterior and hold going all the best way inside.
The venue’s seven-story foyer is dominated by an extravagant chandelier, utilizing 5 kilometers of strands, embellished with 840 lights and greater than 600,000 crystal beads, and weighing a whopping two metric tons.
Visitors should not count on to listen to it utilized in any informal jam periods, it is now solely performed by prime 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 residences, that vary in worth from $170 to upwards of $5,000 an evening.
Even probably the most fundamental provide ceiling-to-floor home windows and sumptuously giant double beds. The décor is a up to date luxurious combine, with plush carpets and fashionable furnishings. Spacious and cozy, every room within the lodge both seems to be 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 affords views of the Caspian Sea and, if eligible, entry to the Fairmont Gold lounge on the nineteenth ground, which comes with a non-public 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 picket 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 tub and bathe room.
In each of the suite’s two bogs, there are bespoke toiletries — sure, your title 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 lodge have celeb attraction? Sure, says, Zumrud Ismayilova, the lodge’s PR and advertising and marketing supervisor. Names will not be named, however the checklist apparently consists of leaders, royals and celebrities.
“Now we have had many VIP visitors keep on the lodge, however we’d by no means disclose who they’re,” she tells CNN Journey. “When our visitors come to stick with us, they count on privateness and confidentiality and that’s precisely what we give them.”
Positioned on the very tip of the flame, the Royal Suite affords panoramic views of each metropolis and sea. There are two bedrooms, each with en suite bogs, 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 all the ground. Now we have further rooms for safety and workers, and a collection 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 visitors and a totally outfitted kitchen (for the servants, after all). However the primary attraction is the grand en suite rest room with an enormous oyster-shaped tub 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 lodge with indoor pool, sauna, sizzling tub, hammam and areas to unwind. There’s additionally a totally outfitted gymnasium.
The fantastically designed Sky Backyard permits visitors the posh of stress-free on the sundeck or making the most of the poolside sauna whereas searching on the sea. There’s an S-shaped rooftop pool and out of doors 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 enlarge its warmth, making this space a frying pan.
Meals and leisure
As you’d hope from a elaborate lodge inside one of many nation’s largest landmarks, the primary Le Bistro restaurant affords an array of native Azerbaijani wines and delicacies. The Balcon café affords specialty teas and muffins, 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 efficient pre-drinks web site to soak within the ambiance earlier than transferring onto the lodge’s Jazz Membership, a neighborhood establishment.
“We all the time 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 very talked-about with each the lodge visitors and the locals, and we all the time provide one thing new to maintain folks entertained,” Ismayilova says.
There are two issues that the majority lodges are unable to offer — a shopping center and cinema. Fairmont Flame Towers affords each.
Park Cinema supplies visitors (and members of the general public) with six screens, together with IMAX, displaying the newest Arabic, English and Russian language movies.
Subsequent door is the Flame Towers Purchasing Mall, due for completion in early 2020. Luxurious manufacturers, excessive avenue names, cafes and eating places are all set to take up residency.
