New Life for the Grande Old Dame of Jakarta

The Jakarta Globe,  Ade Mardiyati, February 27, 2009 

After three years of major reconstruction that retained most of its original external design, the iconic Hotel Indonesia will officially be back in operation on Saturday under a new brand, Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta. 

“To build a hotel within a hotel is among the most difficult jobs in the world,” Gerhard E. Mitrovits, general manager of Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta, said during a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday when asked why the reconstruction took so long. 

Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, inaugurated Hotel Indonesia in August 1962. It was the first hotel in the country to offer international-standard service  and became a city landmark. 

US architects Abel Sorensen and wife Wendy were retained by President Sukarno to design the 25,082-square-meter building. The couple successfully outlined and brought to life a modern hotel that included elements of Indonesian architecture. 

The first important event to involve the hotel was the 4th Asian Games in the same year the hotel was opened. State guests and world leaders who have been  hosted at the hotel include US Senator Ted Kennedy and Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. 

In its golden years, Hotel Indonesia was a symbol of Jakarta’s urban lifestyle. Meetings and social functions of the wealthy and socialites were held at the hotel. 

During the 1970s, the Nirwana Supper Club was frequently filled with Jakarta’s leading lights enjoying dinner and live entertainment by  both local and international musicians. Going for a dip in the hotel’s swimming pool became a status symbol for young people of the time. 

A number of the hotel’s original art masterpieces have been maintained. The Dewi Sri statue sculptured by Trubus, President Sukarno’s favorite artist, and an enormous wall painting of Indonesia’s fauna by world-renowned Chinese artist Lee Man Fong are among the hotel’s treasures.