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If Atlanta and New York City have their Marriott Marquis hotels, Singapore has the Pan Pacific hotel, and Tokyo has the Prince Park Tower hotel, this ought to be Dubai's equivalent to such hotels, in the sense that it features a soaring atrium with high-rise glass elevators traveling along its sides. The 400-room hotel tower of the twin-towered Emirates Towers development, it was the shorter of the two towers at a height of 309 meters (1,014 feet); this was despite it having the same number of floors as the office tower, owing to its shorter floor-to-ceiling heights.
The tower's main entrance was located one floor below that of the office tower, on the upper ground floor (denoted as "UL") accessed via the northern access ramp from the development's peripheral ring road. Upon entering, one came upon the reception desk on the right side and concierge desks on the left side, while in the center was the first segment of the building's atrium spanning eight floors. Right below this atrium was the lobby lounge named Daefi, while eight elevators were located to the rear. Beyond the elevator bank was an arcade housing the hotel's patisserie, as well as passageways to the shopping boulevard and the outdoor swimming pool (both on the same floor), and retail tenancies. Also in the arcade were multiple restaurants: Mundo, a buffet restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the pool; La Cantine du Faubourg, a French restaurant with an adjacent terrace; and a steakhouse and bar called The Rib Room. The hotel's main health club called J Club was on the same floor but within the office tower, and could be accessed via the shopping boulevard. The first floor, which was the podium roof, also had another gym, which was much smaller and only open to hotel guests unlike the J Club that also accepted outside members. The plaza on the podium roof between the two towers, available for outdoor events, also could also be accessed via this floor. Floors 2 to 8 had ancillary facilities, with banquet rooms on floors 2, 4, 7, and 8, a business center and a library on floor 3, and a hair salon on floor 5, while floor 6 had executive offices. Floor 9 was a mechanical floor, and represented a break in the tower's atrium. The second segment of the atrium stretched from floors 10 to 40, lined with 339 standard-floor rooms on two sides and a glazed glass facade spanning the other; this facade provided picturesque views of skyscrapers along Sheikh Zayed Road and the sea beyond while acting as a noise buffer for the guestrooms. The base of the atrium on floor 10 was once home to a cigar lounge, but that had been long closed and simply converted to a sitting area. Floor 41 was another mechanical level, and floors 42 to 49 had 61 executive-floor rooms and suites with access to the executive lounge on the 42nd floor, highlighted by the Royal Suite spanning floors 48 and 49. Floors 50 and 51 featured a penthouse fine-dining restaurant and wine bar called Alta Badia, located under the sloping skylight near the top of the tower. Floors 52 and above, located right beneath the tower's spire, had mechanical rooms. The lower ground floor of the building (denoted as "LL") housed the hotel's main ballroom, accessed via a set of escalators to the side of the lobby; this ballroom also had a dedicated foyer facing the ring road, allowing direct service vehicle access without requiring separate vehicle elevators. Talise Spa, accessible via the guest elevators, as well as back-of-house facilities were also on this floor. The basement was the extension of the retail parking area that also spanned the podium and the office tower.
The hotel tower had five low-rise elevators serving the standard floors, three high-rise elevators for the executive floors, three room service elevators, one kitchen service elevator, and two dumbwaiters (one for the penthouse restaurant and the other for the ballroom), all supplied by Mitsubishi as with the office tower. Among the low-rise elevators, four were keyhole-shaped panoramic units with a dramatic view of the atrium as well as nearby buildings through the atrium's glass wall. They served all standard guest rooms on floors 10 to 40, as well as the meeting rooms and the Talise Spa. Their COPs had the same set of fixtures as the office tower elevators, though the hall stations featured standard rectangular black buttons instead of vandal-resistant ones in addition to custom hall lanterns clearly different from those in the office tower. They ran very smoothly, though they were somewhat slow for the number of floors served, sometimes resulting in waits of more than two minutes.
Manufacturer: ETA-MELCO Elevator Co. L.L.C.
Model name: GPM-M
Year of commission: 1999
Loading: 1,400kg (3,090lbs)
Capacity: 18 persons
Full speed: 4m/s (800FPM)
Serviced floors: LL, *UL, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40