W Barcelona, nicknamed the Hotel Vela or Sail Hotel for its shape, stands in La Barceloneta at the Port of Barcelona. Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura designed it. Starwood announced the project in 2004, and the hotel opened in October 2009 as W's first hotel in Western Europe. Marriott manages it, on port authority land. The article names no style or materials.
The tower is 98.8 m (324 ft) tall with 29 floors, built on 7 hectares of reclaimed land, and cost more than €200 million. It has 473 rooms and 67 suites, a rooftop bar, a spa, pools and terraces. A 2017 renovation was followed by an €80 million renovation announced in 2025.
Critics say building on reclaimed sea land is legal only for port facilities, and the hotel sits about 20 m from the sea, short of the 100 m required by Spanish coastal law.
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