This is a remodel of a 135 room boutique hotel, located just off Union Square in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Our goal was to transform the image of the hotel into something young and overtly sexy, within the constraints of a very tight budget.

Given those limitations, we concentrated our efforts on two dramatic gestures. The first was a complete redesign of the entry facade and lobby. A stacked glass front facade, a curving black granite reception desk with a front of back-lit onyx panels and a rosewood-clad elevator core all lend a sensuousness of material that establishes the mood as soon as one enters the building.

The second gesture was to create a dramatic aesthetic in the rooms and hallways through the use of a couple of simple, but unexpected material choices. Solid cobalt blue carpeting (our "sea" upon which the furniture floats) in all the rooms and hallways, and sculpted curved steel headboards, which some guests have likened to an unbuttoned blouse or partially unzipped trousers (interpretation being somewhat dependent upon sexual preference) which also act as the room's light fixture, have become the signature icon of the hotel.