Surprises From The Past [dated]

[Dennis L. Fiddle]

[Navigation Toolbar]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[AIO-Logo]

Surprises From The Past

By Ron Gluckman

[After Hours Logo]Bandung's Savoy Homann Hotel is a prime example of art
deco excellence

When American hotelier Frances Affandy abandoned New
York for Indonesia a decade age, she faced an age-old
dilemma. "I had no idea what to do with the rest of my
life," she says. The answer came in Bandung, a city that
ranks with Miami Beach and Las Vegas in a category only
architectural archivists can identify. All are monuments
to art deco excellence. A longtime hotel marketing
expert with a soft spot for history, Affandy, 48, has
established a reputation as a guardian of Bandung's art
deco treasures.

Known today as Bandung's leading architectural
preservationist, she got her start in Bandung with the
Savoy Homann Hotel, an 1870s guest house that was
revamped as a deco palace during Bandung's boom of the
1930s. "When I saw the hotel, I was hooked," recalls
Affandy, who is the director of marketing for the
Savoy's parent company, PT Panghegar. "It was run down.
Things were out of order, you know: velvet curtains,
teak wainscoting to eye level, red tiles on the floor
and green parquet ceiling in the halls. It looked
horrid.

"But it was everything you dream about," she adds with a
mischievous smile. "I knew this would be fun."

Thus far, the fun has stretched since 1988, when Affandy
began overseeing the meticulous $2 million restoration
of this 153-room landmark hotel. For decades, diplomats,
movie stars and other elites had marveled at the Savoy's
etched glass partitions, checkerboard marble stairways
and miles of polished brass. Nowadays, a new generation
of travelers can share the same neon-lit view that has
been savored by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Ho Chi
Minh and Zhou En-lai. And you needn't be a head of state
to have a taste of the past. Guests arriving at the
Bandung railroad depot are met by the hotel's vintage
limousine for a true trip back in time on Java island.

And what an exciting time it was. Originally a Dutch
garrison town, Bandung's cool climate made the mountain
retreat a favorite with Dutch colonials. They departed
from Batavia, as Jakarta was then known, in droves for
Bandung, where thermometers could register a rewarding
5-degree drop. "Bandung was Indonesia's first resort
area, long before Bali," says Affandy. "There were more
than 100 mountain guest homes here. They built a golf
course, opened restaurants and shops." Plans to move the
capital from Batavia to Bandung were interrupted by the
Japanese invasion during World War II, but many
government offices already had made the move. The result
was a ci

The building boom also brought young architects from
Europe, where art deco and modernism were in vogue in
the 1920s and 1930s. Two Dutch deco enthusiasts, C.P.
Wolff Schoemaker and A.F. Aalbers, practically recast
Bandung in deco mold. Dozens of buildings survive in
Bandung, a surprising city of outdoor cafes, neon
billboards and architecture that seems out of place in
tropical Indonesia. A walk downtown reveals countless
deco and art nouveau themes, from the juke box buildings
to the curving sidewalks, lantern lighting and
checkerboard patterns along the streets. "Bandung is a
treasure," says Affandy, "and we wanted to turn the Sa

Originally a stone guest house owned by a German family,
the Savoy Homann was redesigned and rebuilt by Aalbers
in the late 1930s. From the front, it looks like a
streamlined radio, with rounded windows for knobs. An
interior view yields a different metaphor, an ocean
liner. The hotel tower resembles a steamstack while the
windows are perfect portholes. "That's the image I think
Aalbers was trying to convey and there's a reason for
it," Affandy explains. "A lot of the Dutch came to
Indonesia at the height of the deco craze. That trip on
the ship was probably the most luxurious event of their
lives. Aalbers chose a design that would remind them of
that time."

PT Panghegar, a Bandung family-run company making a
gradual expansion into the hotel business, took a giant
leap forward by purchasing the Savoy Homann in 1988 for
$10 million. Many local observers felt it was a risky
move for Panghegar scion H.E.K. Ruhiyat, who certainly
couldn't claim nostalgia clouded his view. Being
Indonesian, he recalls, he wouldn't have dared step into
the colonial guest house during the 1940s -- the hotel's
heyday. However, Ruhiyat saw promise in what many
believe is Aalbers' masterpiece. Ruhiyat was right: 1992
sales reached $3 million.

Since the purchase, a room-by-room restoration has
ensued. The end result is a museum-quality showpiece
that is stunning from the first glimpse of its gleaming
marble floors to its glistening brass railings. On one
wall is a 1938 relief of the pantheon of Greek gods.
Another sports an antique Indonesian map. Everything
exudes a comfortable metropolitan opulence, though the
garden courtyard and caged parrots impart a tropical
flavor. Bellhops wear colonial-style caps and jackets.
In the business center is a row of antique telephones. A
curved marble staircase -- a remnant from the old hotel
-- takes guests to spacious rooms in the older Asia
Africa wing.

Original furniture is used wherever possible. Many of
the best deco pieces are salvaged from sheds and rubbish
piles on the premises. Other furniture is custom-made to
the exact dimensions of the original furnishings, as are
almost all the light fixtures. The period presentation
is completed by old-framed photographs and a collection
of antique knick-knacks. The result is a hotel that
doesn't merely look old, it feels that way. "We've
gotten some funny looks," Affandy says. "Some people
have complained that we left the squeaks in the floor.
But I think there should be mold on the walls. My God,
we're in the tropics. This is all authenticity.

--------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 1993 by Asia Inc. Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, in
English or other languages, of text, photographs or
illustrations, without written permission from the
publisher is prohibited. This article originally
appeared in the December 1993 issue of ASIA, INC.

source: http://www.asia-inc.com/archive/1993/1293surprises.html

--
dfi...@mn.uswest.net (Dennis L. Fiddle)
e-mail replies welcome: please delete "NOJUNKMAIL." to reply