Extraordinary Centaurus Pakistan 7 Star Hotel Pictures

Pakistan is in the news these days for all the wrong reasons. However the violence and uncertainty in that country seems to have not overwhelmed their creativity and business entrepreneurship. In Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan where just a few months ago the infamous Red Mosque rebellion unfolded, a spectacular architectural masterpiece is currently under construction. The centerpiece of this project is a 37 story tower which looks like a ski jump and when completed in 2010 will be one the handful of 7 STAR hotels in the world.



According to Wikipedia the 7 star hotel is part of The Centaurus mixed development project involving over 6.5 acres of land in Islamabad's arterial corridor, called Blue Area. The whole complex includes the 37 story 7 star hotel, two 21 story residential towers, a 25 story corporate office tower, and a 5 story shopping mall. The complex will also have a parking lot to accommodate over 2,000 vehicles. The Hotel and the complex is designed by the British architect firm WS Atkins PLC and is estimated to cost 350 million dollars. A special feature of the building is its earthquake resilience level. As Islamabad is situated in a earthquake zone the hotel is designed to withstand an earthquake of up to 9.5 magnitude.



The Centaurus 7 star hotel and building complex is built by Pak Gulf Construction (Pvt) Ltd (PGCL) of Islamabad which is a joint venture between Al Tamimi of Saudi Arabia and Sardar Builders of Pakistan. So like many other recent spectacular real estate development projects this also seems to be funded by Arab petrodollars.

Here are some more illustrations of how Pakistan’s Centaurus 7 star hotel will look like.







However some Pakistanis seem to have reservations about this 7 star hotel and the building’s design. Even going through the comments in this post about the hotel in the All Things Pakistan blog you can see many comments about the hotel’s design and it becoming an eyesore in Islamabad's skyline.

Besides serving residential, commercial, and business purposes, the complex is intended to symbolize the growth of Pakistan, and to enable it to host international conferences and seminars in Pakistan's capital city. To wrap up this post, here are some pitchy words from Adil Najam on this from the post in the All Things Pakistan blog I mentioned earlier.

"I am not sure we need any more discussion about whether this hotel is a good idea or not. But what about the design? Is this eye-candy or eye-sore? Will this really take us to the ‘next frontier’ (apologies for the pun)? Does this look more like ‘heaven on earth’ or ‘pie in the sky’?"

For more about the Centaurus 7 star hotel in Pakistan check out the official website of project at TheCentaurus.com.

(Image credit: TheCentaurus.com)