Five Star Resort in Guarda to Receive Frank Gehry Project

Tuesday, 08 November 2011 00:00

In an investment of 66 million Euros, the Cegonha Negra Golf Resort & Spa in Guarda will be home to a project headed by North American architect Frank Gehry. The hotel will open in 2014. An initiative of entrepreneur Alexandre Abreu, the hotel will include the Dredge Museum, also to be developed by Gehry, one of the biggest names in international architecture. The architect also designed Lisbon's Park Mayer in Lisbon, though it was never finished. In August, Alexandre Soares contracted Gehry, in Los Angeles, to work on the project. For Soares, this is the manifestation of his dream to see “two projects by one of the biggest names in architecture” completed in Portugal. Besides the five star hotel and museum, the complex will include an 18-hole golf course, designed by Severiano Ballasteros. The project draws its inspiration from another golf course, the Quinta da Bica Golf Academy in Belmonte, which features a 9-hole pitch-and-putt golf course, with driving range and putting green. A Michelin guide-recommended restaurant, gym with Wellness campus and nightclub are also included. The Cegonha Negra Golf Resort & Spa is in the second phase of construction, where it will create a five-star vacation village with 94 apartments, 65 houses, and a medical spa in a 25 million euro investment to be completed in the summer of 2012. The third phase of the project – the hotel and museum – will open its doors in 2014.