Gabellini Sheppard

The design interprets the guidelines of the Conservation district with an overt modernity that received praise from the San Francisco Heritage and Planning Commissions. The twelve-story, 156 room, new hotel is designed from the inside out, with each guest room’s glass window box boldly expressing itself on the highly articulated façade. The window box has translucent marble doors on either side that filter natural light into the room during the day while transforming into a translucent field of color during the evening.  

Beveled masonry frames surround each window box dramatically focusing views from inside to outside and vice versa. The entire façade is surrounded by a masonry frame that extends above the roof line, providing wind and sun screening for the roof terrace.  The façade is conceived as a permeable surface, transforming itself through color and varying light intensities, into suspended states of opaque or translucent surfaces. The base of the hotel is a simple masonry arch that hovers above an ultra clear glass box that houses the restaurant.