One of the main challenges of the project was to create an efficient hotel program on a narrow, mid-block, and steeply sloping site. By developing a deep understanding of both the guest experience and the operational logistics we approached the hotel design through an atypical lens, proposing full-service valet parking via car elevators and a vertically stacked parking system to accommodate all parking spaces over one level below grade, creating a hybrid architectural form whereby courtyards are introduced into the podium to maximize the number of rooms on the lower levels, and utilizing a side-core arrangement for the tower to maximize efficiency of the narrow floor-plate and optimize views to the water and mountains to the north and west.

The resulting hotel massing doesn’t fit within the traditional ‘tower + podium’ typology, but instead is a hybrid where the form responds to the context by employing a five-storey streetwall, harmonizing more appropriately with the neighborhood context. This streetwall is then pushed, pulled and broken, to reduce scale and allow the narrow verticality of the tower portion to ‘break through the podium’ connecting with grade and producing a harmonized architectural expression. The streetwall design takes inspiration from the façade of the current office building, re-examining the angled articulation by rotating it, scaling it down, and creating a repetitive geometric pattern, creating architectural reference to many of the existing older projects within the Fairview neighborhood. The tower design becomes a counter-point to the streetwall, employing a more playful, randomized glazing pattern which mimics raindrops streaking down a window during the rain.