Page 9 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

Opportunities must be seized whenever they arise. In the way for the tourist industry. It tells how architects were given the
hospitality industry, where resources are more readily allocated to opportunity to show what they could achieve with large volumes,
investments that will increase turnover or improve the look of the and how highly-skilled craftsmen had the chance to express their
hotel, books of this scope are not published every day. Producing a exquisite taste. We learn how managers were able to demonstrate
book of this kind to mark an anniversary might well be acceptable the excellence of the Swiss hotel industry and how crucial it
as good publicity but there would be considerable concern about has been to stress the way in which the hotel briefly provided a
its possible effect on the figures. The anniversary was no more than magnificent backdrop against which historic events – some now
the starting point and certainly not the justification for this exercise. virtually forgotten – were played out.
Furthermore, this book exists because of the main shareholder’s The main shareholder, the Sandoz Family Foundation, has
desire to pay tribute to the combined talents of the builders, crafts- for decades been privileged to witness at first hand how the Beau-
men, entrepreneurs and investors whose ceaseless efforts have, since Rivage has striven to achieve excellence with a human face, un-
1858, brought about so many improvements and guided the Beau- dergoing the transformations required to bring the hotel into the
Rivage towards the maturity of eternal youth. twenty-first century both through modernisation and by restoring
When it opened in 1858, the Beau-Rivage was emblematic it to the state intended by the original architects. The book fulfils
of a whole different world, as it still is today. Deep down it has the need to explain why it is essential to preserve the special at-
always aroused widespread admiration even among those who do mosphere that permeates the Beau-Rivage and makes guests feel
not have the means to enter. But it is possible to be fascinated by that they have been in a place that is quite simply unique.
a cathedral without being a regular worshipper. In a city whose This extraordinary book would not have been possible with-
charm resides more in its slopes, vistas and promenades than in the out the unfailing dedication, talent and professionalism of the editor,
austerity of its large private mansions, its housing estates, post office Nadja Maillard, or Flavia Cocchi’s elegant design. Our profound
or railway station, the Beau-Rivage is an unexpected architectural thanks, expressed in and between the lines of this preface, go to
success, inspired, no doubt, by its proximity to Europe’s biggest the industrious, knowledgeable and painstaking authors and to all
lake. The Neoclassical beauty of the original building, which was those who have contributed to its production.
given new life by the contrasting neo-Baroque extension of 1908,
had little to do with the usual excesses of the past that character-
ised the late nineteenth century and the Roaring Twenties. Today, Olivier Verrey
it bears witness to the fact that, from the very start, its founding Secretary General
fathers endowed the place with a great and beautiful soul, lending Sandoz Family Foundation
it its own unique identity in a world dominated by ostentation and
superficial luxury.
As such, the Beau-Rivage richly deserves a tribute such as
this, systematically presenting its architectural, historic, economic
and social virtues. The book contains a combination of scientific
and historical articles and vivid accounts of events and personal
recollections, as well as four original short stories by contemporary
authors. It also recalls how nineteenth-century travellers paved the

9