Client: Wellesley Hotel| Sector: Hospitality| Duration: 5 Months
Hotel Cabling and Electrical Overview
The upgrade of the Wellesley Hotel’s cigar terraces in Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea involved the complete stripping out of the old structures and hotel cabling. Furthermore, replacing them with a modern architectural structure of bronze and glass. Therefore, as part of these changes, the hotel’s data cabling infrastructure and electrical installation had to be amended and upgraded
The project involved electrical installations for heaters, lights, controls, speakers, and televisions. Therefore, both the electrical systems and hotel cabling were upgraded throughout both terraces. Furthermore, these were to a very specific specification and timescale.
Due to the project’s location and timeline, the installation works were specialised to fit within the working space. Furthermore, there was a lack of consideration for access and time-critical hours in an operating hotel. However, all elements of the project were completed within the timelines and specified budgets. Most importantly, it resulted in no additional downtime for the hotel
The Hotel Challenge
The Wellesley Hotel is operational, and its cigar terraces are among the most popular in London.
To minimise downtime, only one terrace could be completed at a time. This had to be the case even though the terraces were both controlled from a central location. The hotel cabling infrastructure was routed through two hotel floors back to the main communications room. Therefore, consideration was required to not disrupt major parts of the hotel, even though the work was confined to the terraces. This involved not only the refurbishment of the outdoor areas but also extensive temporary construction work. Thus, to keep the opposite terrace active. Also, due to on-site guests’ noisy work, they were limited to certain times and days. Thus increasing the specific nature of the electrical installation and hotel cabling
Exact timescales had to be met to suit target opening dates, all of which all were met
The Hotel Approach
NM Cabling worked very closely with the construction company, hotel management, and designers to ensure that not only were project timelines met, but the overall architectural design was maintained throughout.
Large parts of the design were dependent on how the electrical fixtures and associated cabling would fit within the slimline design of the terrace bronze structure. Furthermore, large parts of the terrace canopy were glass and therefore routing the cabling was intricate to say the least. The Shadow Heaters installed fluctuated with each design to provide adequate heat coverage and to match the terrace’s symmetrical layout. Therefore, each design tweak would require recalculating the electrical loading and wiring schematic.
By dedicating a project management team to the project, this continuity was maintained even though there were many periods of downtime as other trades completed their work.
