Seamarq hotel
why

Where Imagination of Flawlessness Becomes Reality

We all have some set of imagination on ideal type of rest. And although each one of us may have different tastes and preference, many relate time we spend to rest and relax with nature. Whether you idle away, watching waves come and go on a beach side, enjoy delicious food, dipping yourself in a hot bath, read a few pages of books with mountain views in the backdrop or stroll around with your loved ones, you may often picture these scenes in the beautiful nature. If these scenes can be paired with cultural experience – a gallery to appreciate splendid work of art and spa to wash away all the fatigue - the vacation time will become impeccable.

A ten-minute ride from Gangneung Station will bring you in front of a picturesque scenery of Gyeongpo Lake surrounded by the grandiose Daegwallyeong in the background. And at the very end of the quiet lakeside, the five star hotel that is aspiring to serve guests with “the best relaxing time surrounded by the sea,”SEAMARQ HOTEL welcomes guests. Formerly Hotel Hyundai Gyeongpodae that first opened in 1971, the hotel has gone through renovation to reopen in July 2015 and invites guests into a modern update of the signature accommodation of Gangneung with pure white color palettes. Once you enter the lobby with a panoramic ocean view, you will start your immersive time of rest and relax. A good balance of interior design idea, state-of-the art facilities and warm hospitality, the hotel welcomes all guests. Indeed, it is the integrity of the hotel that sets itself apart from all other rivals that anyone can make imagination on ideal time for rest and relax would become reality.
people

Dreaming of Becoming the Landmark in Korea

This five-star hotel in its pure white color tones is the first work in Korea for the globally renowned architect, Richard Meier to commemorate the centennial of the birth of the founder of Hyundai group, late Chung Ju-yung. Formerly Hotel Hyundai Gyeongpodae that first opened its door back in 1971, the hotel had been one of the landmarks of the Gyeongpodae area for the over four decades, attracting more than 5.5 million guests. The late founder of Hyundai group would often visit the area, which had happened to be closest to the home in the north that he had left behind during the Korean War, Asan-ri, Songjeon-myeon, Tongcheon-gun in Gangwon Province. Chung chose the location of the hotel where anyone, including himself, could enjoy the best of what Gyeongpodae could offer, and often mingled with employees and enjoyed leisure time activities.

Decades later, one of the key affiliates of Hyundai Group, Hyundai Heavy Industries, decide to renovate the hotel and began to take the first step in the new estate located in Gangmun-dong in Gangnueng in July 2013. Making most of the surrounding scenery of sunrise from the East Sea and the picturesque landscape of Taebaeksan Mountain, the hotel has been designed to open with the new name, SEAMARQ HOTEL in July, 2015. Kwon Oh-Gap, then CEO of Hyundai Heavy Industries commented, “commemorating the centennial of the birth of the founder, late Chung Ju-yung, the renovated hotel has opened new and is poised to become the landmark of Korea in the wake of 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.”
Seamarq hotel
location

The Location Blessed with Mountains, Sea, Lake and Forests

With opening of Seoul-Chuncheon Highway to the public in 2017, Gangneung has become more accessible from Seoul metropolitan area. Furthermore, the highspeed train, KTX line reaching the city in Gangwon Province has become available that it only takes 110 minutes from Seoul Station and approximately 86 minutes from Cheongryang-ri Station. And the hotel, nestled by Gangmun Beach, is only ten minutes away from Gangeung Station. In the area with good accessibility, the hotel welcomes guests with all the blessings from the nature of Gangwon Province that anyone could imagine. As the name may tell, it takes only a few walks to reach the beautiful seaside and stroll along the beach and dip feet in chilling water of the East Sea.

MAKING STORY

The winner of Pritzker Architecture Prize, Richard Meier was actively involved in the design process. Meier has name his name for consistency in style and ethos themed around white color and has mirrored them for SEAMARQ HOTEL. Just as the leading figure of the third generation of the American architects has quoted, “white shines bright during the day, glows in silver tones throughout the night – such will make a building a live and symbolic figure,” the lights and colors of Gyeongpodae area are reflected in every corner of SEAMARQ HOTEL. Meier has proactively used curtain wall method to embrace the beautiful scenery of the East Sea into the interior of the hotel. The idea has been on the continuum of the openness that the architect has pursued in his works during the 1950’s, Smith House and Douglas House. To this extent, all guest rooms offer either ocean or lake view. Most of all, the hotel is significant for being one of the last works of the American architect.

80% of the guestrooms welcomes guests into panoramic ocean view, while the rest lures in with either mountain or lake views through picture windows. Richard Meier commented that comprehensive picture and concept have been designed before delving into interior, as well as the exterior design of the hotel. With a few of grey and black elements as exceptions, the vast majority of the hotel is presented in white color palettes. The beauty of the color used can be unleashed in the lobby that all lights and colors of different time and weather condition becomes part of the space, inviting anyone into experiencing becoming part of the nature. Tx active concrete panels have deftly used to maintain the purity of the white color – the material remains sturdy against sunlight and humidity. In addition, the interior of finished with white color – similar to that of the exterior – and floor and furniture are finished and made with eco-friendly materials, including wood. Other than Richard Meier, for the interior design, landscape architecture engineer and urban planner, James Corner has actively taken part. Corner has built his reputation for numerous projects, including regeneration of the elevated railway on the westside of Manhattan to give a second life and open a park to the public.

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SEAMARQ HOTEL has been designed to transform the former Hyundai Hotel Gyeongpodae into a new place to commemorate the centennial of the late former president of Hyundai Group, Chung Ju-yung. Against the backdrop, the group decided to commission the globally renowned architect, Richard Meier. When the commission was made six years ago, only few hotels were designed and built by architects with global reputation. The architect recalled in one of the media interviews, “Because the former hotel building was located on the land, facing the beautiful ocean view, I sought to make the most out of what the location could offer.”

From the video clip of SEAMARQ HOTEL, “Interview with Richard Meier” / We sought to materialize one of the novel and innovative ideas that could exist in this world thorugh the channels of SEAMARQ HOTEL. The work of our studio is based on surrounding context, land and natural sunlight – the classic yet eternal design elements. The core of design has been to build a modern architecture that is beautiful yet accessible, understated yet humane, distinctive yet gives rooms for thoughts. This is an architectural work that embraces the local community, as well as individuals. What we paid attention to for the design of the hotel was to underline the elements surrounding the location by dramatically transforming and reinforcing the very location that the hotel would stand. Many of hints and inspiration came from elements from the land and location themselves – light and landscape. And these hints and inspirations were blended and connected with the topography of where the hotel is now. For instance, to design what would stand close to the ocean, ocean view became one of the elements to pay close attention to. Thus, all open spaces and private spaces are open to the oceans to balance between contrasting elements – openness and closedness, and transparency and opaqueness. Indeed, many parts of the hotel relates closely with the first works, including Smith House and Douglas House, which have made themselves distinctive with open living room spaces, windows, and openness to the surrounding natural landscape. All elements in the hotel are carefully designed, taking open spaces, climate conditions of the East Sea and natural sunlight. The strategy encompassing the entire project pivots around what natural sunlight can offer and connection among the hotel, banquet room spaces and adjacent buildings. Lastly, the hotel maintains close ties with the warm hospitality of Korea that has deeply been rooted in manner, cordiality and beauty for many years.#
SPACE

An Amazing Moment to Focus on Yourself

With the panoramic view of the East Sea as the backdrop, a large-sized ribbon is shimmering above the table stretching across the space. This is titled “Gold Ribbon,” one of the works of the master of lighting design from Germany, Ingo Maurer. Besides, masterpieces from around the world are making presence in almost every corner of the hotel, including LC2 – New Collection Sofa 1 Seat by Le Corbusier, Cicognino Side Table by Franco Albini, 606 Universla Shelving System Bookshelf by Dieter Rams, and Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen. By smelling, touching, and feeling the installations and furniture of the creative minds, guests can get immersed in the aesthetics and elegant tastes of the hotel. Furthermore, the VIP lounge on the second floor, The Library lures guests into the collection of publications of rarity, vastly covering arts and culture. The atmosphere of the private library is culminated by pleasant sound of music and the picturesque view of the outside.

The signature spot of the hotel, Beach on the Cloud presents a mesmerizing ocean view to let anyone feel as if one’s swimming in a place bordering between the ocean and the sky. And most of all, the swimming pool is filled with warm water to enjoy all year round. The pool has recently become a popular photo zone to capture the beautiful moment of either sunrise or sunset.

One of the types of guestrooms, Korean Suite is a modern reinterpretation of Korean style room with floor heating system, ondol. The elegant atmosphere is paired with high quality beddings to graft with functionality. Accommodating up to four persons, the suite is designed to be family-friendly, as well as those who seek to experience Korean traditional culture. Presidential Suite, in its space measuring 399㎡, is prepared to serve special guests with ambient and elegant atmosphere and spacious living room space. The living room welcomes guests into cozy atmosphere created by its fireplace and the grand piano, while the bedroom is ready to serve guests with high-end beddings, and the bathroom, with its bathtub made with marbles. Moreover, the courtyard with wooden deck is designed to be open to the sky. This suite room presents 360-degree view of beautiful natural landscape of Gyeongpo Beach and the horizon, and beautiful ridges of Daegwallyeong from any part.

Hoanjae is a stand-alone suite that has been designed by the Korean architect, Hwang Doojin and is consisted of the guestroom, Chyeongwoohyeon, Seonyujeong (annex room), banquet room Cheongwooheon and the smaller room, Soheeru. The garden and front yard have been designed to ensure neatness and presents seasonal changes, as well as unique aesthetics of Korea. For your information, the hotel spent more than three years to find and plant one of the local pine tree species. Moreover, this is where the banquet hosted by the president was held during the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. The Retaurant is a dining place that serves guests all year round with its open kitchen and large windows that are open to the East Sea. The dining place is open between 7:00 am and 9:30 pm. Chef’s Table, on the other hand, serves customers with course menus made with locally-sourced fresh ingredients, and is open between 12:00 pm and 10:00 pm. In parallel, the hotel runs an exhibition space by the entrance to commemorate excavation of relics of the Shilla Dynasty (between the fourth and the fifty centuries) at the time of constructing the hotel.
INTERVIEW

Interview with the Host of Uirim Inn, Kim Namsoo

stayfolio
Seamarq hotel
You’ve built up your reputation for your rational and reasonable approach to architecture. Could you please tell us more about your design idea and approach to creating spaces?
Architecture can be defined as cautious expression of how changes are steered into. This is not about rationalization of ideals and utopia, but rather, it is about being part of creative process to unleash new ideas.

Many of the works for the past years have left impact to me as an architect. And I pay attention to every project that I touch on and take contexts into careful consideration. Other than functional aspects, I ask myself significance and directionality for further development and improvement in the future. I look for measures to highlight public aspects of contexts and how to make the spaces we create give fresh energy to where they are standing. The studio is aspiring timelessness in design, pivoting around context, land, and sunlight. Ultimately, the pursuit revolves around design ideas that would culminate significance for both present and future.
For the hotel, are there any parts where you have paid special attention to?
For any hotel project, I make sure I know who are coming to the place, how they are using the spaces and what managers and hosts can offer. I believe that as an architect, I need to be able to funnel them into architectural design ideas and be passionate about materializing these ideas. Both of exterior and interior of a hotel should deserve equal attention, but in many respects, I need to admit that interior design plays crucial role in defining what a hotel looks and feels like. And anything guests experience should leave lasting impression. Further, hotels should be tangible and connect all elements – order and definition – with architectural culture. Every corner of a hotel should be designed, taking all elements, including public spaces, private spaces, context, and natural sunlight into careful consideration.
What have you sought to highlight for SEAMARQ Hotel and why?
Water view encompassed the project. For a building standing by a waterside, we believed that any parts of public and private spaces should have connection with the waterside, taking both of openness and closedness, transparency and opaqueness, and connection between exterior and interior spaces into consideration. While we seek to harmonize with the design ethos, we look to maintain modernity in aesthetics and expression, with a touch richness, warmth, coziness, and brilliance added. The idea is unprecedented design project, building up design ideas by taking all elements into careful consideration.
While you have kept up with your own design ethos, you may have set the hotel apart from other projects. What could it be? Was it from influence from surrounding landscape or a part of your new experiments?
The main goal of the project was to underline and transform the concept surrounding lands with entirely new method and thus, create a novel concept. Almost all architectural design idea starts from sunlight, scenery, topography, and historical significance of land. In this regard, the first big decision we made was to make most of the environment – we did not make a complete overhaul. We look for the best possible measures to make good use of the amazing land.
Why would you want to flat out the land with mesmerizing landscape? We chose, instead, to recreate, making most of the natural landscape. After the completion, you will notice that the natural landscapes are being highlighted. These have two significant implications – first, the hotel preserved the innate beauty of the land, and second, the landscape gives an important clue on the hotel and its surroundings.
What is your favorite space? The hotel faces the East Sea and is surrounded by waters like an island. Have you considered such aspects into consideration when you first began working on the project?
Waters of the East Sea were the key drivers of the project. We have run numerous projects that were closed to waters, and Gyeongpodae was one of few locations that gave inspirations with its calmness and serenity. The panoramic view from sunrise and the beautiful scenery of Taebaeksan Mountain have been the splendid backdrop for the hotel, as well as impeccable inspiration.
The hotel’s façade is designed to be plain yet somewhat complicated. The pattern created by multiple elements, lights, and shadows are impressive. Could you tell us more about space and lights?
The façade has been designed to look plain, yet with meticulousness and sophistication. For instance, the two-story façade in the east is open and differs in width and shape of shadow by surrounding views, letting in abundant sunlight. In contrast, the façades in the west and sought are designed to reveal flat land and function more as shades. Fascinatingly, these façades are part of interaction between lights and shadows.
The hotel was a renovation of what had formerly stood in the place. What have you tried to keep and how have you reinterpreted?
SEAMARQ HOTEL is standing on where the former hotel was located. It was surrounded by the best possible condition you can imagine when you think of a seaside accommodation that we sought to culminate all of the location, energy, and landscape.

To me personally, the steep area of where the former hotel had been standing was impressive – the hotel was standing tall on top of the hill, and its buildings were connected from one to another, encompassing the dense pine tree forest. For the modern updates of the hotel, we sought to recreate the distinctive ascendible elements and embrace pine trees as energizing elements to the design idea.

STAY’s recommended
Local Destination

Infinity Pool

This outdoor swimming pool invites you to blend into the East Sea and the blue sky.

The Spa

This spa will treat you with services to wash away all fatigue.

STAY’s recommended
Local Restaurant

Chef’s Table

This upscale dining place serves guest with quality Korean or western cuisine in courses. All ingredients are fresh and sourced locally.

The Restaurant

This dining spaces serves customers with breakfast, dinner and single dishes, inviting into slower-paced dining experience with the picturesque view of the East Sea as the backdrop.

STAY

Soothing Time

From mesmerizing panoramic view in the lobby, neatly placed table and chairs, to beautiful lighting in the lobby, the elegance of this extraordinary hotel building is laced with prestigiousness. The view of Gyeongpodae Beach is, undeniably, close to astonishment. This has been made possible as the hotel remained true to the essence and basics. Furthermore, the hotel boldly brings down convetional wisdom that inconvenience should be an inevitable part of elegance. Within the context of the state-of-the art facilities and the brilliant design idea of the globally renowned architect, all staff members of the hotel build friendly relationship with guests to ensure comfort and warm hospitality throughout their stay. Indeed, the warm hospitality can easily be found in every corner of the hotel – from guestrooms with ocean view, healthy food menu made with locally sourced ingredients, to the outdoor swimming pool that looks as though it is bordering between the sky and the ocean. All of the elements clearly reveal what should be part of the hotel so that guests can relieve all their stress and fatigue. Most of all, the hotel is nestled in one of the best locations in Gangwon Province to blend into the beautiful scenery created by the surrounding sea, lake and mountains. Undeniably, SEAMARQ HOTEL is the very place to experience all the best you can imagine from a seaside accommodation.

4 POINT OF VIEW

ORIGINALITY

Blending into the Landscape and Masterpiece

Blending into the panoramic view of Gyeongpodae and the masterpiece of the master architect, you will finally know what it takes for a genuine time for rest and relax. The openness and closedness, as well as transparency and opaqueness – the core of Richard Meier’s design idea – ensures the sense of openness to the beautiful nature of Gyeongpodae to melt all fatigue and tension from everyday lives. The meticulousness in design, taking nature and climate conditions into consideration, lures guests into the artistic scenery of the interior and exterior of the hotel that keep changing with light in different times and thus, experience time spending in the midst of nature.

DESIGN

Experience Resembling Much to That of Museums

From the pure white exterior designed by Richard Meier to the artworks of key modern artists, you will be immersed in the space and time surrounded by masterpieces. Staying in the hotel, you will be part of the special experience that would otherwise be possible only in art museums.

Hospitality

Genuineness from Integrity

Despite all the brilliant design ideas and sophisticated finish, only few would be moved and touched if there were little genuineness and integrity. SEAMARQ HOTEL serves guests with all the essence that are irreplaceable for hospitality to ensure relaxing moments for all. And such integrity is shared in every corner of the hotel.

PRICE

Incomparable Magnetism and Memories

The hotel deserves the word, “incomparable” for its elegant yet comfortable atmosphere. This may be because it is deftly mirroring the light, color, and warmth of the nature of Gangneung, Gangwon Province that changes by weather and season. Indeed, a combination of flawless design idea, priceless artworks and warm hospitality makes incomparable magnetism possible.

Stay Name
Seamarq hotel

Stay Type
Hotel

Contact information

Address
2, Haean-ro 406beon-gil, Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea

Guests / No. of Room
2~6 / 150

Price
US$ 457.9 ~ US$ 6,315.91

Check-in / out
15:00 / 12:00

Feature
Breakfast, Projector or TV, Swimming pool, Tub (ex. Jacuzzi, Hinoki)

PHOTO BY | arcfactory.net
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