The Old Port Hotel in Klaipėda

About object:

There were almost no public spaces in Klaipėda along the Curonian Spit and the bank of the river Danė for a long time. The Jūros Vartai company decided to change the situation and turn the 5 ha industrial territory on the bank of the river Danė by the historical Klaipėda Castle into an attractive residential, commercial and public zone.

Since the land used to be ruled by the Germans for almost five hundred years, a prominent influence of German architecture can be felt, a typical trait of which is fachwerk. Since the development of the project was started from reconstruction, the historical German architecture found its new tone in the reconstructed buildings.

The “Rice Mill” is one of the largest and most impressive structures of the said part of the port. After the WWII it was almost demolished – only a one-floor office building remained for the port administration. After the reconstruction, which was done in 2008, a hotel and a restaurant were launched in the building. The “Rice Mill” regained its initial form and height, which were registered on the photographs of the beginning of the last century and the double facade of the building, made of glass and wooden beam structures is an interpretation of the previous fachwerk style, allowing to occupy it in the present day.

A. Stelbiene