Travel destinations designed to ooze quality
10-storey
Dakota Deluxe hotel in Leeds
27 suites
Part of the 137-room Manchester hotel
104-cover
Brasserie with cocktail lounge in Manchester
Boutique city centre hotels, inspired by the golden age of air travel, which deliver sophistication and a truly luxurious experience for their customers, where every detail in the design matters.
Renowned for bold and beautiful décor, chic and stylish bars and restaurants, and a lighting design that creates pools of atmospheric light, Dakota Deluxe hotels are truly sophisticated.
As part of the Evans Property Group portfolio, the hotels are inspired by the golden age of air travel and the iconic Dakota airliners.
In collaboration with Leeds-based architects KPP, and GMI Construction, we supported the development of both the Leeds and Manchester hotels on respective brownfield, city centre sites. Our role spanned from planning stage through to detailed design, construction stage project monitoring, and BREEAM Assessor.
Comfort-led design is paramount to the Dakota Hotel experience. Our building services design was delivered to meet these critical brand standards and are reflected in touches such as underfloor heating, the unique internal and external lighting scheme, the positioning of electrical services in rooms, and the inclusion of a fire in the penthouse suite in the Manchester hotel.
A review by The Telegraph Travel section on the Dakota Hotel Manchester sums up what matters from the design of these sumptuous destinations: "Embrace this glitzy vibe while sipping a drink in its chic bar, cocooned in a candlelit booth in the restaurant, or relaxing in a tasteful bedroom where attention has been paid to detail."
“ Bathrooms are … well-designed. Charging points and huge television screens cater for both business and leisure guests. ”
The Telegraph Travel Review
Key hotel facts
Dakota Hotel Leeds
- Situated in the city centre on Bond Street, with terraces on Greek Street
- 10-storey
- 84 bedrooms/suites
- Signature Bar & Grill in the basement
- Boardroom
- First floor salon bar with external terraces
Dakota Hotel Manchester
- Situated canal-side on Dulcie Street, close to Piccadilly station
- Nine-storey
- 137 bedrooms, including 27 suites
- The 1,800 sq ft ‘Grand Deluxe’ penthouse suite is the largest in the city, with roof-top terrace, steam shower, fire and whirlpool bath
- Signature Bar & Grill
- Chic cocktail lounge with champagne room
Penthouse suite
A sustainable solution
The eye-catching design of the respective Leeds and Manchester Dakota Hotels illustrates the value of regenerating brownfield city centre sites.
In Leeds, the hotel has been built on a former ‘stacker’ car park which was a blot on the city centre. In Manchester, the hotel has acted as a catalyst for regeneration in the Piccadilly Basin area which was part of a strategic regeneration framework. An offsite manufactured hybrid solution sped up the final fit-out of the hotel and reduced inner-city vehicle movements to reduce its carbon footprint.
MEP and BREEAM design solutions
On both hotels, we supported the initial planning application with a focus on the external lighting schemes and space planning. We delivered performance specifications and drawings for the tender pack and undertook construction stage monitoring duties.
Lighting control was a core part of our brief to help create the pools of light that the Dakota Deluxe hotels are known for.
In totality, our scope of services included:
- Incoming services upgrades
- Existing infrastructure diversions
- M&E services strategy to future-proof the hotels
- MEP design
- Construction stage project monitoring
- Design stage and as-built stage thermal modelling
- Combined heat and power feasibility study
- BREEAM Assessor
