Martin's Patershof Hotel
Continuing the historic tradition of ‘refresh’ a church with a more modern one or to use the stones of a temple of one denomination to build another of the opposite, the current market wants to get the most out of ecclesiastical buildings by reusing their architecture to adapt it to current trends: this means turning them into trendy places where you can eat, drink or shop (or, again, all those things at once) .
St. Mary's Church, pints and prayers in Dublin
Abandoned since 1964, the early 18th century church St. Mary in 2005 he changed the candles for cocktails to welcome the cool people of Dublin with a much more rogue spirit. A refurbishment with which it won the award for best old building at the Dublin City Neighborhood Awards, and which in 2007 made it possible for its new owners to add to the bar, in addition, a cafeteria, a nightclub and even a terrace with a barbecue. Today, when you're at The Church Bar & Restaurant sipping a Guinness at the bar in what was once the central nave, look up at the huge Renatus Harris organ built into the wall, and reflect on how the place was already pointing ways when Arthur Guinness, founder of this brand of beer, married here in 1761.
Limelight Shop: first church; then mall
Curling the curl, which was a Mid-19th Gothic episcopal church converted into the fashionable New York nightclub in the 80s, it replaced in 2010 the great bodies of the gogós for the bodies of the mannequins and took on the form and style of an alternative design market called Limelight Shop (respecting the original name of the nightclub). In the Chelsea neighborhood, specifically in the Flatiron district, next to 5th Avenue, fashion, beauty, decoration and delicatessen firms share space with the rose windows and capitals hidden since the 70's and rescued after rehabilitation. Do not leave without buying a revitalizing cream at Thérapie New York, the preferred beauty brand for stylish women of the Upper West Side (on the first floor); or a vintage-style crew neck dress at the Old Hollywood store (on the second floor).
The windows of the Limelight Shop mall
Desecrated since 1999, the residential complex Patershof (a **19th century church with gardens and a cloister that was part of a Franciscan monastery) ** has been transformed into the most modern hotel in the Belgian city of Mechelen due to the uniqueness of its bedrooms: your windows will be stained glass and you will rest under a starry dome surrounded by the nerves of the warheads designed to unload its weight (if you are not from 'Letras', you will understand it by looking at the photo). For its part, in the lobby of the Martin's Patershof hotel, avant-garde elements – in the form of modern black columns with LED lights – coexist with the most classic – original white stone columns with Corinthian-style capitals. Avant-garde atmosphere with a sacred spirit. Amen.