Astoria Hotel

2010. The historic neoclassical facade is prolonged by five vertical spans. The same rhythm, the same mass and negative spaces, the same composition, the same height as the prestigious building classified in 1910 and now restored to its former glory. Its features endure, from side to side, seemingly purified, smoother, flourishing, compelling,  vibrating  from within… The granite and cast-iron laurels which decorated, here and there, the piers and openings of the aged exterior, abandon their immobility to pervade the new facade. Ornament has metamorphosed into apparel. Time has toiled, without tarnishing.