DLR Group’s design for this modern hotel achieves an authentic local experience through careful design that celebrates Portland’s unique qualities. At the street level, the building meets the ground in a way that engages the public and enlivens the site with operable glass walls that connect the interior activity to the urban streetscape. Sitting within a neighborhood cherished for its food carts, the hotel lobby is designed to bring these carts and their local purveyors into the building. A continuous canopy at street level protects pedestrians from Portland’s frequent rain.

The façade design relates to the elegant, early 20th-century masonry context, and evokes quality and richness through shifting textures and tones. The geometry of the hotel’s façade is inspired by the irregular pattern of rainfall, and the building’s exterior materials palette is reminiscent of the local Columbia River Basin basalt stone colors and striations. Through scale and articulation, the design relates strongly to the surrounding context, and the dark earth tones of the masonry create a lively urban juxtaposition to the vintage white terra cotta and limestone buildings in the neighborhood.