November 2000
Penton's Designing Magazine , Premiere issue

Sketches
Seattle Hotel Features Customized Rooms

A new 100-room urban boutique hotel planned for the University District of Seattle will offer movable "theme carts" which allow for customizing studios to each guest's desire. Ordering the Office cart, for example, transforms the room into an Office Studio. Other carts planned include the Party Cart, Literary Cart, Spa Cart, Surfing Cart (Internet), and the Art Cart.

Degen & Degen of Seattle is the architect and interior designer and Nootka Hotels, Inc. owns the $11-million project. Named Watertown, the hotel is expected to serve guests and professionals attending University of Washington activities. It also will cater to the University Medical Center.

"The client had very specific goals in mind for reinventing hotel living," says Jeffrey S. Degen, AIA, principal. "We worked very closely with him and involved the interiors team from the start."

"These rooms break the mold for hotel guestrooms," adds Anita L. Degen, ASID, project principal-interiors. "We started with the idea of flexibility and fulfillment of the guest experience in the hotel environment, then built the rooms around that."

The 60,000-square-foot hotel scheduled for completion in spring 2002, aims to capture the essence of water as a theme. Fluidity, transparency and freshness are central elements to both the architecture and interiors, inspired by Seattle's relationship with water.

Exterior materials will include pre-finished metal siding, stucco, and European style tilt-turn operating windows. Interior materials will comprise bamboo flooring, exposed concrete, custom carpets and artwork, and cherry-finished woodworks.

The site features a courtyard linking NE 43rd Street to Roosevelt Ave., NE, framing an entry for pedestrians approaching the university.