On July 1, 2025 the Marriott International, Inc. inaugurated a new prestigious link in its chain of luxury hotels worldwide. Now named W Florence, it is situated in piazza dell’Unità Italiana on the side of the square between via Sant’Antonino and via del Melarancio, just a stone’s throw from both Santa Maria Novella station and the Duomo. This new hotel is not, however, the first accommodation to occupy this site. Instead, it is the most recent restoration of what was once the Grand Hotel Majestic, which had, in turn, been built on the site of an earlier hotel with the same name constructed in 1926 only to be demolished and replaced by the newer version in 1972. Subsequently, this was abandoned in 2009 and lay derelict for 15 years until the American group salvaged it.
The 1972 Majestic was controversial from the beginning, when the plans were drawn up and presented to the owners, the Pancioli family of developers from Montecatini Terme who had been commissioned to build the hotel by the Banca Popolare of Novare, which wished to share space within the property. Lando Bartoli was employed for the job in collaboration with Gianni Ornaghi and Giovanni Sanità. His vision for the new Grand Majestic Hotel was focused on modernity, but the Fine Arts Superintendence rejected the plans in 1968 because they considered the facade and spectacular spiral staircase, both featuring steel cladding, to be too modern, plus the height of the proposed construction was unsuitable within the more traditional context of the other Florentine palaces in the historic piazza. Only after significant changes had been made were the plans approved in 1972 and work commenced.
Lando Bartoli had a long and varied career as an architect, spanning seven decades from the 1930s until the 1990s, leaving his stamp on Florence and many other cities in Tuscany as well as further afield on occasion. Born in Livorno on March 27, 1914, son of sculptor Umberto Bartoli, the young Bartoli was educated in Florence and graduated in architecture in 1937. In 1940, he was conscripted into the army and sent to Albania. On his return to Florence four years later, he became part of the VIII Army responsible for the recovery of stolen artworks. He was also assigned to consolidate the Uffizi, which had been damaged by German mines when they blew up the bridges over the Arno river. During this time, he worked with Giovanni Poggi, then superintendent of the provinces of Florence, Arezzo and Pistoia. On instructions from the military administration who acted swiftly to have the strategic Ponte della Vittoria rebuilt after it was destroyed during the German withdrawal from the city, Bartoli won the competition to reconstruct the bridge, in collaboration with Nello Baroni, Mario Focacci, Italo Gamberini and Carlo Maggiora. The new Ponte della Vittoria opened in September 1946. In 1958, he would be a member of the commission working on new city plans for Florence, which was presided over by another famous colleague, Giovanni Michelucci. During the 1950s, Bartoli also began teaching technical subjects at various faculties at the Universities of Florence and Pisa until he was given what would become a 25-year appointment as the chair in Design at the Science Faculty of the University of Florence. In 1972, when the Faculty of Engineering was established, the Design Department moved there, where he continued teaching.
From the mid-1940, Bartoli became increasingly interested in urban planning, beginning from his first of many such projects. Between 1945 and 1946, he drew up plans to rebuild Borgo alla Collina in Casentino and the war-devastated areas around the Ponte Vecchio. In 1951, he became a member of the National Town Planning Institute. These projects sparked an interest in politics, which resulted in him running for office. In 1951, he became a city councillor and the public works alderman in Mayor Giorgio La Pira’s administration from 1955 to 1957.
Between 1950 and 1959, Bartoli was also appointed as director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, where he acquired new machinery and reorganized the institution, overseeing many important restoration projects. After this interlude and throughout his working life, he also continued designing and building residential properties: churches including Ascensione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo in Florence (1973-79); hospitals like San Giovanni di Dio (1968); fruit and vegetable markets, like Pescia (1949); and banks such as the headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia in Florence (1984-92). He also published a number of books dedicated to his profession and kept a detailed archive of his work. All of this more than earned him a place as one of Italy’s most important architects of the 20th century.
Lando Bartoli died in Florence, aged 88, on January 6, 2002.
