Durrant Designing Korean Air Force Hotel

Durrant Designing Korean Air Force Hotel
The Republic of Korea Air Force has selected a signature design by the Minneapolis office of The Durrant Group, Inc. for a $20 million hotel the air force will own and operate as a business venture on popular Haeundae beach in metropolitan Busan.

Durrant won the project through a design competition in which the firm partnered with Haenglim Architects & Engineers of Anyang, South Korea.

The 16-story, 159,000-square-foot hotel will have 21 guest rooms and 63 condominiums, all with ocean views.

Design includes six banquet halls, spas, restaurants and lounges - including a glassed-in rooftop garden "sky lounge" - courtyards and balconies for parties and sunbathing, a karaoke room, billiards room, business center, convenience store and four stories of underground parking.

Currently, the air force operates a modest, three-story hotel on the building site, which is less than one half acre.

That hotel will be demolished this year, with construction of the new hotel scheduled to begin in 2007 for completion in 2010.

Although it's unusual for the Korean military to sponsor a design competition for a building project, the client wanted architecture symbolic of the air force, with a contemporary look to attract an increasing number of tourists and business travelers to Busan.

The air force also will use the hotel for