M.31 Hotel
San Francisco, California
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2004, the M.31 Hotel is a located adjacent to San Francisco’s historic Union Square. The design interprets the guidelines of this Conservation district with an overt modernity that was unanimously approved by the San Francisco Heritage and Planning Commission. This rational, elegantly proportioned building is among the few Modern structures to be approved for construction in this Conservation district under the current administration.
The twelvestory, 156room, new hotel is designed from the inside out, with each guest room’s glass window box boldly expressing itself on the highly articulated facade. 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 surrounding each window box dramatically focus views from inside to outside and vice versa. The entire facade is surrounded by a masonry frame that extends above the roof line, providing wind and sun screening for the roof terrace. The facade is conceived as a permeable surface, transforming itself through color and varying light intensities to create alternating opaque and translucent planes. The base of the hotel is a simple masonry arch that hovers above a clear glass box housing the restaurant.
