Parsian Esteghlal International Hotel


The Parsian Esteghlal International Hotel is a hotel in Tehran, Iran. Opened in 1962 as the Royal Tehran Hilton, the hotel was designed by local Iranian architect Heydar Ghiai.

Overview

The hotel's design consultants also included noted British architect Raglan Squire, who also designed Hilton hotels in Tunis, Bahrain, Nicosia and Jakarta.
The hotel originally consisted of a single tower containing 259 rooms. An additional tower, with 291 more rooms, was constructed in 1972. The hotel's famous guests during this period included Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, King Hussein of Jordan, and astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
The hotel was renamed the Esteghlal Hotel following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when all foreign hotel management contracts were severed. It is today part of the state-run Parsian International Hotels Co. A third tower is currently under construction.

Building and Construction Facts

A grand modern lobby designed with warm colors and decorated with stunning Persian paintings on the walls connects two towers of the hotel. The east tower is more equipped than the west tower, providing more services and different restaurants.
Unlike its more contemporary twin building, the original white concrete of the first tower was able to retain its coloration due to an innovation by its architect Heydar Ghiai who decided to include particles of crushed white marble into the concrete mix.