The Billboard Hotel

 

All the land vacated by the Alaskan Way Viaduct is meant for public space.  Realizing the difficulties of the following site I chose the position of leasing the site to create a high-end hotel that would take advantage of the views. This in turn will help finance the other programs and public spaces of the master plan including a primary school and theater.  There is a lobby, gallery, restaurant and bar on or near the ground level that is all open to the public.  By raising the rooms up above the level of the adjacent building a space for an outdoor garden has been created that acts as a wonderful public plaza.  The rooms themselves are kept as translucent as possible creating a sense of voyeurism that is carried through out the hotel culminating in a glass sided pool on the rooftop deck that looks out onto Western Avenue,  Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula.