Tbilisi’s New Telegraph Hotel Reimagines A Brutalist Landmark
The latest Soviet building in the Georgian capital to be transformed into a design-forward hotel, the Telegraph aims to become a popular gathering place for travelers and locals alike.
Perhaps more than other post-Soviet cities, Tbilisi has excelled at turning its brutalist buildings into vibrant hotels. First there was Rooms Tbilisi, which opened in 2012 in the vast complex of a publishing house and helped put the Georgian capital on the cool hunters’ map. Then came Stamba, just around the corner in the headquarters of the first Communist newspaper in Georgia, where much of the original printing press machinery is still suspended from the ceiling between the crumbling concrete pillars.
The newest member of this club is the Telegraph. The hotel opened last month in the city’s old post office. It was the place where Tbilisi citizens “came to communicate with the outside world” via messages and postcards, and with one another as they waited their turn, says the hotel’s marketing communications manager, Nini Zalkaliani.
The monumental Post and Telegraph building was designed in 1964 by Georgian architects Lado Meskhishvili and Teimuraz Mikashavidze. Its brutalist façade, monumental cornices, double atriums and seamless integration into the surrounding urban axis made it an architectural landmark on Rustaveli Avenue (the Georgian Champs-Élysées) from the beginning. Its pale stone and stark geometry still hold a stately dominance over the city block in front of it.
It was empty for decades before George Ramishvili, the founder of Georgia’s Silk Road Group, rescued it. His company, which operates hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues around the country, set about developing it in a way that would respect its architectural soul while mixing in modern refinement—and above all, retaining its spirit as a gathering place for the city.
Its guests were part of a growing international wave of visitors who are discovering Tbilisi, a city the international press has been calling the “new Berlin” for some time now. (It’s also a beacon for food lovers.) At the crossroads between East and West, Georgia is a layer cake of history whose people are still shaking off the hangover of Soviet rule while forging their own place in the world. There’s a clear longing to be part of Europe—the city is filled with the blue flags of the European Union (of which many citizens aspire to be a part)—but a visual language that’s unlike the one found anywhere else.
Although most of the “old city” was built in the 19th century after waves of conquest and destruction, there are Orthodox churches and thermal baths that are far older. A tiled bathhouse would fit perfectly in Tehran. Colorful wooden balconies hang from the upper floors of the houses. Some signs are written in Georgian, English and Azerbaijani, while the street art is dominated by romantic turns of phrase and whimsical drawings of cats and khinkali (Georgia’s famous hearty dumplings).
The Telegraph’s 239 rooms fit right in with this genre-defying spirit. They all have very high ceilings (typical of old buildings in Georgia) and geometric black ironwork dividing the spaces, bringing to mind the shapes of a Mondrian painting. Their look is the work of Neri & Hu, the award-winning design studio in Singapore, which was chosen, says Zalkaliani, for their deft mixing of historical spaces and new touches.
Beyond the rooms, the hotel was designed to maintain its building’s legacy as a gathering place. It has five restaurants that span a variety of moods and cuisines. The Italian Philosophico is led by an Italian brand chef, while Laan Thai, the city’s first refined Thai restaurant, is a project from Bangkok-born, Paris-based celebrity chef Rose Chalalai Singh. But the chef of the Grand Café—the hotel’s showplace Georgian restaurant and the site of its sprawling breakfast buffet—says the inspiration was his grandmother’s table.
Along with the restaurants, there’s an open-air bar in one of the atriums, and a cozy wine library, where guests can sample vintages from the Silk Road Group’s vineyards and other producers in Georgia’s thriving wine scene. Laptops are welcome in both spaces, as well as in the street-facing café-bar, Bell & Gray, which seems to have already become a minor hub for the city’s thriving digital nomad population.
Ramishvili also had the resident population in mind when he decided on the Telegraph’s nightlife and entertainment options. Named for Georgian jazzman Tatuza Kurashvili—a longtime friend—the basement Tatuza Jazz Club is the first jazz venue of its caliber in Tbilisi. And upstairs, there’s the Rolling Stone Rooftop Bar, the first in a global chain of music-forward cocktail bars opened in partnership with the famous magazine.
Both were inaugurated with high-profile concerts featuring international artists. The message was clear: that the Telegraph intends to reclaim its position as a local gathering place with connections to the world beyond.
