André Gerondeau, executive vice president hotels at hotels and resorts group Sol Meliá, joined the mayor of Vienna on 24 June in a ceremony to lay the first stone of what will become the tallest building in Austria.

The 220m-tall (722ft), 60-storey DC Tower 1, designed by French architect Dominique Perrault and expected to be completed by 2014, is to be the future home of the Hotel ME Vienna, the most upmarket of the hotel brands operated by Sol Meliá. The ME Vienna, the fifth ME by Meliá hotel and the first hotel to be operated by Sol Meliá in Austria, will provide 255 rooms on the first 15 floors of the building with panoramic views over the River Danube.

The hotel will also provide a range of dining experiences plus facilities for meetings and events. The tower is the first of two scheduled for Vienna's Donaucity project, with the construction of the 160m-tall (525ft) DC Tower 2 expected to begin three years after completion of the first one. Vienna's Millennium Tower - at 202m (663ft) - is the tallest building in Austria at the moment.

Image: At the stone laying ceremony. André Gerondeau of Sol Melia at second left, Michael Häupl, mayor of Vienna, at fourth left