Ratchadamri Road was built in 1902 under King Rama V and it formed an intersection with Ploenchit Road in 1920, in the reign of King Rama VI. As Bangkok entered its first phase of modernisation in the 1950s, foreigners began to arrive and the city thus needed more room in order to accommodate them. It was Pol Gen Pao Sriyanont, a key figure in Thai history and chairman of the Saha Hotel Group, who sparked the idea of building a new hotel on Ratchadamri Road, which was becoming a new nexus in Bangkok's urban expansion.