Page 216 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

Fig. 2 Fig.3
the existing building would have been even less practical for the good organisational skills. The latter was therefore asked to project
Beau-Rivage, as guests would have had to negotiate a series of manage the main building work, from drawing up the plans to
long corridors to reach the dining room (which was to remain supervising the site, or, at least, the sub-contractors and work (the
in the west part of the building), and room service would have construction work having been sub-contracted to companies who
been problematic. One final requirement was that the new wing would later be criticised for their lack of professionalism). Jost
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must not overly ‘compromise the aesthetics of the Beau-Rivage within and his partner Maurice Schnell, on the other hand, seem to have
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its grounds’, a condition which appeared particularly hard to fulfil. been more involved with the interior design and furnishings, and
In fact, the shareholders were so concerned that a new building notably devised the decoration schemes for the hall and dining
‘would have too much of a detrimental impact on the appearance of the room; they also appear to have designed some of the furniture,
Beau-Rivage and make it look too functional’ that they called for a quite a rarity in the case of a hotel. 22
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second hotel to be built higher up, on the Élysée plot of land It was hoped that the building project would be completed
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which they also owned. quickly, but in 1906 it was severely held up by the workers’ strikes
In 1904, after having studied each of these issues at length, the and the oversights of the building contractor Chessex-Krieg, who
general assembly of shareholders opted for a wing to be built on the employed only a hundred or so builders, labourers, hod-carriers
west side of the old building. The construction of the Simplon and stone cutters on the Palace, a workforce considered to be well
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Alpine railroad tunnel connecting the Swiss towns of Brig and short of what was required to make up for the delays. The board
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Domodossola, scheduled to open in 1906, had stimulated a lot of stated bitterly that: ‘If the construction work is not completed by the end
hotel-building activity in the region, and explains the sudden fast- of June there will be no question of opening in spring 1908, and we should
tracking of the Beau-Rivage project; however, while the Montreux be ashamed of our inability to build our hotel in two and a half years.’ It is
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Palace rose to the challenge, the Beau-Rivage Palace missed certainly true that other luxury hotel schemes in the region, notably
the strategic deadline by two years. In the end, enlarging one of those constructed by Jost, had been finished with lightning speed:
Lausanne’s pre-eminent hotels would be fraught with difficulties. 26 months for the Caux Palace, for example, and only 22 for the
The board was so anxious for the new building to harmonise Montreux Palace. Up to 320 labourers worked on the Caux Palace
with the old one that it asked three different architectural practices in the summer time. This urgency was undoubtedly a question of
to produce preparatory plans: Van Muyden had retired through pure maths: while a hotel remained closed, it could not provide a
illness, so Louis Bezencenet, Henri Verrey and Alfred Heydel and return on the shareholders’ investment. On another level, however,
Eugène Jost were consulted. Bezencenet was well established in this race against the clock was also symbolic: the faster a building
Lausanne, having already worked on dozens of important building was seen to go up, the more financial power its commissioning
projects, including the Hôtel des Postes with Jost; Verrey and body was perceived to have. The Société immobilière d’Ouchy
Heydel were well known to Morel, as they were the appointed was therefore ‘ashamed’ of the length of time their building was
architects of the Société climatérique de Leysin of which he taking because it made them look weak in the face of the (better
was a founding member and the director. After reviewing the organised) competition. While the builders’ strike was entirely
preparatory projects, the board asked Jost to partner Bezencenet. unforeseen, other factors certainly contributed to the unfortunate
Jost no doubt appealed to the board for his creative flair and situation. Firstly, the appointment of Bezencenet to oversee the
ability to design sumptuous decorative schemes and elaborate building work; although his credentials both as architect and
facades, whereas Bezencenet was a reliable entrepreneur with builder were solid, unlike Jost he had little expertise in this type of
J. Cornaz, architect, Hôtel Beau-Rivage Palace. Elevation. The entrance to the Palace, known for many years as the winter garden.
Showing present condition [of the porch]. Lausanne, September 1949.
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Fig.4
building. Secondly, Jost was unable to put together the same kind between the Palace and the Beau-Rivage, namely the domed hall
of team that he had employed on his various Montreux building to the south (now La Rotonde) and the dining room with its
projects (made up of experienced craftsmen and artists who were stained-glass roof to the north (the Sandoz Room) (fig. 1). Each
guaranteed to be efficient and produce good-quality work). Many of these sections evoked other hotel buildings of the era, notably
businesses in Montreux at that time relied solely on the hotel those designed by Jost. Thus, the arcade also appeared in a number
industry for their livelihood, and consequently had to maintain of hotels in Montreux: the Hôtel National (1896), the Hôtel
high standards in order to satisfy their exclusive clientele; this des Alpes in Territet (1904) and, scaled-down, in the Montreux-
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was not the case in Lausanne, where the market was wider and the Palace (1906). The accommodation section also resembled some
commissions more varied in both the public and private sectors. of Jost’s Montreux hotel buildings, both in layout and elevation,
Although the Société d’Ouchy was a big client, it was certainly not including the Hôtel des Alpes and the Montreux Palace, the main
the only one, and the companies it sub-contracted to did not give difference in the Palace being the absence of a central monumental
it their undivided attention. pavilion. Finally, the section containing the public rooms situated
Despite the constant setbacks, the project got back on track between the two buildings (one of which was the original hotel)
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and the pace of work accelerated in 1907 and 1908. The outer was also present in the Hôtel des Alpes and the Montreux Palace.
structure was completed in summer 1907 and work on the interior The Ouchy Palace did not, therefore, represent a new architectural
began that autumn, although this was not without its own problems: model; its interest lies rather in the way the architects applied a
in the dead of winter, the painter Otto Haberer repeatedly insisted tried-and-tested formula to a given situation.
that heating be provided in order for him to carry out his work Initially, the Palace’s position on a slope above the Beau-
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in the freezing-cold dining room. The board minutes reported Rivage might seem confusing for visitors arriving at the hotel, since
that during the night of 18 June 1908: ‘We created a tunnel passage the location of the main entrance is not immediately obvious (it
through the old dining room to connect the two buildings. Service began is, in fact, at the end of the road). As with many other hotels of the
with lunch at 12.30 p.m. in the new dining room. That same evening, same era, each of the wings has its own entrance, which means that
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several rooms [in the Palace] were occupied by guests.’ It had taken the main doorway does not instantly stand out, in contrast to most
almost three years to construct a building which was ultimately city-centre establishments (one need only think of the Lausanne
smaller than the luxury hotel buildings of neighbouring resorts; Palace of 1915, whose front porch is visible from as far away as the
nonetheless, the results made the wait worthwhile. Place Saint-François). There are several indications that the door
of the Palace is only of secondary importance. The absence of a
TWO FACADES central pavilion (mentioned above) reduces its visual impact, while
The new building comprised three distinct sections located its location within a veranda makes it even harder to see; even the
next to the existing 1861 Beau-Rivage. The first consisted of a raised use of metal for the door suggests that it was not conceived as a
platform which functioned as the Palace garden and, underneath, grand entrance, since this was a time when the dictates of classical
an arcade and walkway; the second was the wing known as the architecture, which held stone to be a more ‘dignified’ material, still
‘annexe’ (in fact, the Palace itself), designed in a horseshoe shape, prevailed (figs. 2 and 3). The signs are clear for those who know
whose principal (south-facing) facade was composed of two how to read them: the formal entrance to the hotel is to be found
lateral pavilions flanking the main longitudinal section, with a bay in the middle (projecting) section of the original Beau-Rivage
window at its centre; the third comprised the public rooms located building. Guests must therefore walk along the entire length of
Ouchy Lausanne, Hôtel Beau-Rivage, postcard, c.1913.
View of both buildings and the main body of the public rooms. The series of
horizontal lines superimposed on each other from water level to roof makes the
building stand out against the surrounding landscape.
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