Extra floors
Architect Hugh Maaskant's original 1958 design for the hotel was two storeys taller than what was eventually built. Those extra floors were dropped during construction because the operator was afraid of empty rooms. The missing floors are plain to see in the final result: the lift tower in the middle of the building sticks out a fair way. In 2009 the hotel's then director Roberto Payer made a bid to put the extra floors on top of the hotel and so restore the original design to its former glory. The construction drawings from the 1960s showed that this would be possible without any major changes to the structure.
Thrills and drama at the hotel
Over its lifetime the Hilton has regularly been in the news, producing stories we would like to tell you in separate articles.
- In 1969 the young hotel instantly made world news when Beatle John Lennon and his brand new wife Yoko Ono held a so-called bed-in for world peace during their honeymoon. In the end the two spent a week in bed in one of the hotel's suites while receiving press and fans in the room all day long. The memory of this stay is still visible in the room in question.
- World peace had still not arrived when, twenty years after Lennon's call, the underworld and the upper world met in Barretje Hilton. In the 1990s, Heineken kidnapper Cor van Hout and Sam Klepper, among others, were regulars at this bar in the hotel. The saddest low point in the Hilton's existence must be the brutal assassination of Klaas Bruinsma on 27 June 1991 in the Breitnerstraat, next to the hotel.
- Early this century the hotel made the news once more when artist and singer Herman Brood leapt to his death on 11 July 2000 after managing to reach the hotel roof. Brood crashed onto a section of roof on the fourth floor. "Make it a great party. And maybe I'll see you again some day." read the note he was carrying. A bench stands in front of the hotel in Herman's honour.
