Lego grand hotel
Lego's Boutique Hotel is a nice model, but it's not much of a hotel. It has just three rooms (only one of which has access to a bathroom!) and no amenities other than a reception. I figured I could do better...
This is a project I started over a year ago, and have finally got around to finishing. The Palace Hotel contains 20,168 Lego pieces (I think!). This is possibly my final word in modular buildings, as I'm not sure where else I can go from here. Like all modular buildings, it breaks into sections (a) for portability; and (b) so you can see inside. It contains a reception, restaurant, bar, café, lounge, gym, outdoor pool, sauna, 8 single rooms, 5 double rooms, 3 twin rooms, 1 family room, 1 dorm room, a penthouse apartment and a honeymoon suite, as well as roof terraces and various essential such as kitchens, a beer/wine cellar, staff room, laundry room, changing rooms, toilets, corridors, a (sort-of) working lift and fire exits.
Taking each section individually, from the ground up...
Ground floor:
Steps and accessible ramps lead up to the main entrance. The name is a nod to the Palace cinema, the first modular building I ever bought. Inside is a large reception area, partly reworked from the Boutique Hotel. It has a reception desk, sofas, and a staircase and lift leading to the upper floors.
1,551 pieces
Off to the left of the reception (as you enter), three sets of stairs lead down to the left luggage desk, staff room (with sofa and kitchen area) and a corridor. This section also features a corner café with indoor and outdoor seating and kitchen, the hotel laundry room and a toilet. Outside is a tree, post boxes and a bench.
1,022 pieces
The corridor continues around the ground floor, providing access to the changing rooms (with lockers, showers and benches), sauna (with benches and light-up fire), emergency staircase and the outdoor pool area (a table and sun lounger of which appears in this section. Outside there is a cashpoint, phone booth and area to lock up bikes.
798 pieces
To the other side of reception is a grand double-height space which forms the hotel restaurant. Open to the public too, its outdoor entrance is taken from the Parisian Restaurant. Inside, I'm proud of the flooring and the coffee machine. The chandelier is a mix of the one from the Grand Emporium and the one from the Brick Bank.
1,451 pieces
Behind the restaurant is its kitchen, as well as a toilet, another emergency staircase and an all-important beer and wine cellar (since I got criticised for not including one the last time I built a Lego pub!). Up top are a couple of tables from the outdoor terrace. Outside is a bench by a tree and (less scenically) the area for the bins out back.
1,010 pieces
The final ground section is the outdoor swimming pool, with the aforementioned roof terrace, sun loungers, a slide, steps, a palm tree, gate and a lifeguard station. Outside the gate are flowers to make a scenic rear entrance.
761 pieces
Mezzanine floor:
Three sections of the ground floor have a mezzanine level above them. The first, with stairs directly up from reception, is this lounge area, featuring a large L-shaped sofa, coffee machine, jukebox (taken from Downtown Diner), pool table (taken from the Detective's Office) and a cinema room (reworked from the aforementioned Palace Cinema).
793 pieces
Behind the lounge, above the changing rooms and sauna is the hotel gym, with equipment taken from Downtown Diner and my own previous pool/gym build. Stairs in the corner provide access. The floor here is kind of garish, but I think it works.
553 pieces
Around the other side and above the restaurant kitchen (and that beer/wine cellar!) is the main hotel bar, with plenty of hand pumps and plenty of seating. A balcony overlooks the restaurant and a door leads to the outdoor terrace. More stairs in the corner. Getting the layout and the floor right was a challenge with this one.
705 pieces
1st floor:
Onto the first floor, where the actual hotel accommodation starts. You can see the mechanism for the lift doors quite well in this shot. The lift lobby leads to two single bedrooms, with part of a double bedroom at the edge of the section, as well as a shared bathroom. The curtains were fun to build.
899 pieces
To the right, this corner section includes the rest of that double bedroom and bathroom, as well as the bathroom for the next section.
785 pieces
The next section being the dorm room. I'm very pleased with the bunk beds. I couldn't fit curtains to every room, so the blinds here are a neat solution. Outside the dorm, a corridor (with a reptile tank!) leads to the back stairs.
700 pieces
Around the other side of the lift lobby this section has two single rooms and a double room. I had to build most of the beds, but many of the other furnishings for the various hotel bedrooms are taken from other modular buildings.
735 pieces
Finally for this floor are two more single rooms and another shared bathroom, as well as a corridor leading to the second set of back stairs.
650 pieces
2nd floor:
Up on the second floor, the accommodation starts to get a bit more luxurious. All the rooms on this floor are en suite. This centre section has two of them, a double and a single. You also get a good look in this photo at the main staircase, the lift and the details on the front of the building (which took a fair bit of figuring out).
914 pieces
Two more double rooms for this corner section, and this is another photo where you can see the various techniques I used on the outside. The corner room is quite grand, but the zig-zaggy arrangement of walls elsewhere illustrates the amount of planning I needed to do to work out the layout of each floor, and really shows this is just one small section of a much bigger model.
733 pieces
This back corner includes the bathroom to one of the rooms in the previous section, as well as a twin room with its own bathroom too. As with the floor below, a corridor provides access to all the rooms and the back staircase.
652 pieces
Around the other side is another grand corner room (a family room this time, with three beds) with its own en suite, and a further single room. I don't have enough windowless doors for the rooms, so just pretend those windows have panels for privacy, or something. In the foreground is the corridor leading from the lobby to all the rooms.
686 pieces
At the back, as with the opposite corner, is a twin room with its en suite and that for the single room in the previous section. The back staircase continues again. The exterior walls at the back of the hotel are, as you might expect, much less fancy than the front, but I still had a fair bit of fun with the details.
698 pieces
3rd floor:
We're at the top of the building now, as you can see from the roof details. Up here we're into much more luxury, with the beginnings of the penthouse suite, including its bathroom (behind the removable art panel), office area and one of its two bedrooms. The more spacious lobby than other floors features artwork, a fish tank and great window views. The lift ends here but stairs continue up to the roof.
966 pieces
Here you see the rest of the penthouse suite, with its double bedroom and main open plan living area. This includes comfy seating, a kitchen/dining area and a fold-down extra bed if needed. The doorway by the colourful rug leads out to the private roof terrace.
830 pieces
...and here is that roof terrace. It has an outdoor dining table and sun loungers with parasols. the railings overlook the street on two sides and the pool area on the other. The cupola provides an interesting architectural feature (Translation: it took flipping ages to build!), as well as an emergency exit via the back stairs.
367 pieces
On the other side of the top floor is the honeymoon suite, with romantic décor, a four-poster bed, luxurious bathroom (with actual bath!), a comfy sofa and table. This was one of the most fun sections to build, and I'm very pleased with the bed in particular.
850 pieces
Like the penthouse, the honeymoon suite also has its own roof terrace. A workman here is making sure the flower pots, sun loungers and dining table for two are perfect for the happy couple. You can get a better appreciation of the cupola for this side from this photo.
341 pieces
Roof:
Finally, we reach the roof. For this central section, I took the dome from the Boutique Hotel and extended it upwards to make a lantern tower over the lift lobby below. A workman's door leads to the stairs and the roof is slightly raised on the other side to accommodate the top of the lift shaft. A window cleaner is at work in his cradle, which hangs from here.
370 pieces
This view from underneath the corner roof over the penthouse shows how it is constructed, as well as details such as the cornices, raised roof over the corner section, and the skylight.
169 pieces
The roof on the other side is almost a mirror image, and here you see it from above. You can appreciate the step change a bit better from this angle. A more elaborate skylight (taken from the Brick Bank) caps the honeymoon suite as a pair of amorous cats meet in the foreground.
179 pieces
Phew! What a lot of Lego! :o)
This is a project I started over a year ago, and have finally got around to finishing. The Palace Hotel contains 20,168 Lego pieces (I think!). This is possibly my final word in modular buildings, as I'm not sure where else I can go from here. Like all modular buildings, it breaks into sections (a) for portability; and (b) so you can see inside. It contains a reception, restaurant, bar, café, lounge, gym, outdoor pool, sauna, 8 single rooms, 5 double rooms, 3 twin rooms, 1 family room, 1 dorm room, a penthouse apartment and a honeymoon suite, as well as roof terraces and various essential such as kitchens, a beer/wine cellar, staff room, laundry room, changing rooms, toilets, corridors, a (sort-of) working lift and fire exits.
Taking each section individually, from the ground up...
Ground floor:
Steps and accessible ramps lead up to the main entrance. The name is a nod to the Palace cinema, the first modular building I ever bought. Inside is a large reception area, partly reworked from the Boutique Hotel. It has a reception desk, sofas, and a staircase and lift leading to the upper floors.
1,551 pieces
Off to the left of the reception (as you enter), three sets of stairs lead down to the left luggage desk, staff room (with sofa and kitchen area) and a corridor. This section also features a corner café with indoor and outdoor seating and kitchen, the hotel laundry room and a toilet. Outside is a tree, post boxes and a bench.
1,022 pieces
The corridor continues around the ground floor, providing access to the changing rooms (with lockers, showers and benches), sauna (with benches and light-up fire), emergency staircase and the outdoor pool area (a table and sun lounger of which appears in this section. Outside there is a cashpoint, phone booth and area to lock up bikes.
798 pieces
To the other side of reception is a grand double-height space which forms the hotel restaurant. Open to the public too, its outdoor entrance is taken from the Parisian Restaurant. Inside, I'm proud of the flooring and the coffee machine. The chandelier is a mix of the one from the Grand Emporium and the one from the Brick Bank.
1,451 pieces
Behind the restaurant is its kitchen, as well as a toilet, another emergency staircase and an all-important beer and wine cellar (since I got criticised for not including one the last time I built a Lego pub!). Up top are a couple of tables from the outdoor terrace. Outside is a bench by a tree and (less scenically) the area for the bins out back.
1,010 pieces
The final ground section is the outdoor swimming pool, with the aforementioned roof terrace, sun loungers, a slide, steps, a palm tree, gate and a lifeguard station. Outside the gate are flowers to make a scenic rear entrance.
761 pieces
Mezzanine floor:
Three sections of the ground floor have a mezzanine level above them. The first, with stairs directly up from reception, is this lounge area, featuring a large L-shaped sofa, coffee machine, jukebox (taken from Downtown Diner), pool table (taken from the Detective's Office) and a cinema room (reworked from the aforementioned Palace Cinema).
793 pieces
Behind the lounge, above the changing rooms and sauna is the hotel gym, with equipment taken from Downtown Diner and my own previous pool/gym build. Stairs in the corner provide access. The floor here is kind of garish, but I think it works.
553 pieces
Around the other side and above the restaurant kitchen (and that beer/wine cellar!) is the main hotel bar, with plenty of hand pumps and plenty of seating. A balcony overlooks the restaurant and a door leads to the outdoor terrace. More stairs in the corner. Getting the layout and the floor right was a challenge with this one.
705 pieces
1st floor:
Onto the first floor, where the actual hotel accommodation starts. You can see the mechanism for the lift doors quite well in this shot. The lift lobby leads to two single bedrooms, with part of a double bedroom at the edge of the section, as well as a shared bathroom. The curtains were fun to build.
899 pieces
To the right, this corner section includes the rest of that double bedroom and bathroom, as well as the bathroom for the next section.
785 pieces
The next section being the dorm room. I'm very pleased with the bunk beds. I couldn't fit curtains to every room, so the blinds here are a neat solution. Outside the dorm, a corridor (with a reptile tank!) leads to the back stairs.
700 pieces
Around the other side of the lift lobby this section has two single rooms and a double room. I had to build most of the beds, but many of the other furnishings for the various hotel bedrooms are taken from other modular buildings.
735 pieces
Finally for this floor are two more single rooms and another shared bathroom, as well as a corridor leading to the second set of back stairs.
650 pieces
2nd floor:
Up on the second floor, the accommodation starts to get a bit more luxurious. All the rooms on this floor are en suite. This centre section has two of them, a double and a single. You also get a good look in this photo at the main staircase, the lift and the details on the front of the building (which took a fair bit of figuring out).
914 pieces
Two more double rooms for this corner section, and this is another photo where you can see the various techniques I used on the outside. The corner room is quite grand, but the zig-zaggy arrangement of walls elsewhere illustrates the amount of planning I needed to do to work out the layout of each floor, and really shows this is just one small section of a much bigger model.
733 pieces
This back corner includes the bathroom to one of the rooms in the previous section, as well as a twin room with its own bathroom too. As with the floor below, a corridor provides access to all the rooms and the back staircase.
652 pieces
Around the other side is another grand corner room (a family room this time, with three beds) with its own en suite, and a further single room. I don't have enough windowless doors for the rooms, so just pretend those windows have panels for privacy, or something. In the foreground is the corridor leading from the lobby to all the rooms.
686 pieces
At the back, as with the opposite corner, is a twin room with its en suite and that for the single room in the previous section. The back staircase continues again. The exterior walls at the back of the hotel are, as you might expect, much less fancy than the front, but I still had a fair bit of fun with the details.
698 pieces
3rd floor:
We're at the top of the building now, as you can see from the roof details. Up here we're into much more luxury, with the beginnings of the penthouse suite, including its bathroom (behind the removable art panel), office area and one of its two bedrooms. The more spacious lobby than other floors features artwork, a fish tank and great window views. The lift ends here but stairs continue up to the roof.
966 pieces
Here you see the rest of the penthouse suite, with its double bedroom and main open plan living area. This includes comfy seating, a kitchen/dining area and a fold-down extra bed if needed. The doorway by the colourful rug leads out to the private roof terrace.
830 pieces
...and here is that roof terrace. It has an outdoor dining table and sun loungers with parasols. the railings overlook the street on two sides and the pool area on the other. The cupola provides an interesting architectural feature (Translation: it took flipping ages to build!), as well as an emergency exit via the back stairs.
367 pieces
On the other side of the top floor is the honeymoon suite, with romantic décor, a four-poster bed, luxurious bathroom (with actual bath!), a comfy sofa and table. This was one of the most fun sections to build, and I'm very pleased with the bed in particular.
850 pieces
Like the penthouse, the honeymoon suite also has its own roof terrace. A workman here is making sure the flower pots, sun loungers and dining table for two are perfect for the happy couple. You can get a better appreciation of the cupola for this side from this photo.
341 pieces
Roof:
Finally, we reach the roof. For this central section, I took the dome from the Boutique Hotel and extended it upwards to make a lantern tower over the lift lobby below. A workman's door leads to the stairs and the roof is slightly raised on the other side to accommodate the top of the lift shaft. A window cleaner is at work in his cradle, which hangs from here.
370 pieces
This view from underneath the corner roof over the penthouse shows how it is constructed, as well as details such as the cornices, raised roof over the corner section, and the skylight.
169 pieces
The roof on the other side is almost a mirror image, and here you see it from above. You can appreciate the step change a bit better from this angle. A more elaborate skylight (taken from the Brick Bank) caps the honeymoon suite as a pair of amorous cats meet in the foreground.
179 pieces
Phew! What a lot of Lego! :o)