Here’s your “brutal architecture” from architect John Portman over at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. Well, part of it, anyway.
The no-longer-revolving site of the former Equinox Restaurant:
Click to expand
(Yes, they leave their Christmas lights, oh, I’m sorry, “holiday” lights up all year ’round, a practice considered “tacky” where I’m from.)
The whole place is nothing but concrete, plus some tiles on the floor.
This the lobby from above – tile everywhere:
But see what the employees have done? They’ve laid down some carpeting, you know, to ease the pain, the brutality:
(Especially when there’s water on the floor on a rainy day, you can’t really tell that you’re inside a building. Some guests don’t like that.)
Anyway, all the deets:
“This seminal 20-story gray concrete structure—designed by influential architect John Portman, who launched the trend toward indoor-outdoor hotel environments—is the focal point of the Embarcadero Center, where more than 100 shops and restaurants cater to the Financial District. The spectacular 17-story atrium lobby (listed by Guinness World Records as the largest hotel lobby in the world)…”
“Cozy” this place is not.
Take a visit sometime, why not?
Tags: architect, architecture, atrium, book, brutal, center, district, Eclipse, Embarcadero, Embarcadero Center, financial, financial district, Guinness, Guinness World Records, hotel, hyatt, indoor-outdoor, John Portman, largest, largest hotel lobby in the world, lobby, lobby lunch, records, restaurant-bar, trees, view, water, world
Sweet BLOG! Is this your first?
Anything they can do to warm that place up is AOK with me!
Love your blog…keep it up. The building is well planned and I would like to congratulate them.