Created by Urban Villages, a leading developer and environmental steward, and brought to life in collaboration with Aparium Hotel Group, a visionary operator of independent, luxury lifestyle hotels, Populus Seattle is an adaptive reuse property that reflects the building’s 1907 history and has been thoughtfully modernised to give it a vibrant second life.
The 120-room boutique hotel features Firn, the first and only rooftop bar in the neighbourhood, along with Salt Harvest, a signature restaurant that draws inspiration from the Pacific Northwest. With a deep commitment to sustainability, the hotel plants a tree for every night’s stay through the Populus One Night, One Tree program, and its design evokes the lush, natural beauty of a Pacific Northwest rainforest, creating a true sense of place.
Image credit ARTXIV
“The opening of Populus Seattle marks an incredibly significant milestone for the future of environmentally forward hospitality – both in Seattle and across the country – providing a lively new gathering place that connects guests and locals to the Pacific Northwest in the heart of the city,” said Jon Buerge, President of Urban Villages. “Populus Seattle underscores Populus Hotel’s unwavering commitment to honour and give back to our environment; this time, as a historic adaptive reuse property with an immersive urban-meets-rainforest feel that uniquely reflects its Seattle location.”
“At Populus Seattle, we set out to create a place where guests can truly connect with the city—a space where every stay becomes a series of discoveries, from art that tells the stories of the region to flavors that capture its essence,” added Mario Tricoci, CEO and Founder of Aparium Hotel Group. “Our goal was to build a hotel that isn’t just a backdrop for a trip, but a meaningful part of the experience itself.”
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“As a fifth-generation Seattleite, I’m proud to welcome guests to Populus Seattle, right in the heart of Pioneer Square,” said Rod Lapasin, Managing Director and General Manager. “This is a neighbourhood with real history and personality, and we’ve built a hotel that feels like a natural extension of that energy.”
Populus Seattle is designed by The Miller Hull Partnership, a firm that works to create a regenerative and inclusive future through the built environment, to preserve the historic essence and charm of the building’s past as the ‘Westland Building” of the early 1900s. Driven by the philosophy of letting the original building dictate the design, The Miller Hull Partnership rehabilitated the structure to be modernised as a lifestyle hotel, without compromising its historical relevance or its reflection of Pioneer Square – Seattle’s first neighbourhood. Because Populus Seattle is an adaptive reuse building, its baseline carbon footprint is also substantially lower than if the building were built new, which simplifies the carbon positive process.
Image credit: Ric Stovall
Wherever possible, The Miller Hull Partnership preserved and repurposed existing materials, including Douglas Fir beams, exposed historic brick, and car decking – all of which speak to the building’s character and layered design story. In some instances, they worked to bring the building back to its original state; for example, by relocating elevators added in the 70s to open up a stunning skylight – which now runs from the lobby up through the roof, filtering in beautiful natural light and letting the outdoors in.
The hotel’s deep connection to roots and place carries through to its interiors, which are designed, conceptualized, and executed by Curioso — an internationally renowned design studio specializing in the human-centred, contextual design of hotels, restaurants, residences, and brands. For Populus Seattle, the firm’s first project in Seattle, Curioso was inspired by the city’s history and the culture of its inhabitants, along with the surrounding nature of the Pacific Northwest as a contrast and complement to the urban environment. To achieve this duality of nature and city and past and present, Curioso carefully utilized raw woods, forged steel, and organic lines – often leaving the structural elements exposed to create a balance of raw beauty and refined craftsmanship.
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Not only is Populus Seattle inspired by nature, but it also brings a diverse variety of trees and vegetation to the heart of the city through biophilia. Its lush entryway and rooftop – both designed by Seattle-based landscape architecture firm, Site Workshop, are informed by the natural ecology of Washington. Guests are immediately immersed in nature upon stepping through the doors and into the opening vestibule, which is home to G(host) Forest, a hanging landscape art piece by Isvald Klingels composed of fallen trees, snags, logs, branches, and living plants. The old-growth trees include native Western redcedar and Yew trees, some of which are up to 500 years old and 16 feet high, and pay homage to Pioneer Square’s past as a logging destination.
On the rooftop, native prairie plants pay homage to the coast’s original glacial trail, while supporting biodiversity by bringing butterflies, hummingbirds, and bumblebees back into the city. Additional highlights by Seattle-based landscape designer, Camden Gardens, include a variety of tropical plants, which thrive indoors long-term, flanking the lobby’s dramatic grand staircase; an abundance of hanging greenery in the Salt Harvest Solarium; and a multi-story moss wall that runs from the lobby up through the skylight and will naturally grow moss overtime, similar to the exteriors of historic buildings found throughout Pioneer Square.
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Populus Seattle further pays homage to its surroundings through a dynamic, 300 plus-piece art collection curated in partnership with the global art production house ARTXIV. Representing the most significant revival of regional art since the legendary Northwest School movement of the mid-20th century, Populus Seattle’s art collection features commissions from 35 local, regional and international artists and is a testament to the region’s past, present, and future as a creative epicenter. The captivating works of art were created on-site and celebrate the Pacific Northwest’s landscapes, cultural heritage, and creative pulse – including large-scale art in the lobby by Sean Barton, Przemysław Blejzyk, Andrea Heimer, Joe Feddersen, and Kimberly Trowbridge.
The property features a variety of inspired amenities and communal spaces that cater equally to locals and Seattleites. Upon entering, guests are greeted with the buzzing ambiance of the lush, art-filled lobby and two distinct meeting and event spaces – The Library and The Art Room – on either side. These versatile venues are ideal for business meetings, social gatherings and celebrations of up to 70 guests, and regularly host community events and programming that foster collaboration, creativity, and connection. In the lobby, a grand staircase leads to the second floor, which is home to Salt Harvest and The Café at Salt Harvest, which also features a direct entrance from the public alleyway, providing a convenient way for locals to grab a coffee and bite during their morning commutes.
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Populus Seattle’s 120 guest rooms and suites are a serene retreat in the heart of the city, designed to feel both luxurious and grounded in the distinct beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Spacious, artful accommodations include the Lupine King Room, featuring curated décor and art alongside architectural details like exposed brick and large windows that invite natural light. The Noble Fir Studio King adds a lounge area and modern bathroom with double vanities and a soaking tub, while the Summit Suite serves as an expansive sanctuary on the top floor, inclusive of a dining area, kitchenette, soaking tub, and private terrace overlooking the city.
Poised to be dynamic additions to Pioneer Square’s growing culinary scene, Populus Seattle is home to Salt Harvest, a deeply Pacific Northwest dining experience shaped by fire and seasonality, and Firn, Pioneer Square’s first rooftop bar with skyline views, a cocktail menu inspired by the natural world, and thoughtfully crafted Pacific Northwest bites. Helmed by Executive Chef Conny Andersson, an internationally recognized chef, cookbook author, and Four Seasons and Six Senses hospitality veteran, and Chef de Cuisine Jonathan De Paz, an esteemed alum of The French Laundry and Eleven Madison Park, both concepts reflect the hotel’s reverence for nature through local seasonal ingredients and biophilic design, including a lush, glass-wrapped Solarium at Salt Harvest that evokes the feeling of a Pacific Northwest rainforest.
Image credit: Ric Stovall
Pioneer Square’s first and only rooftop bar, Firn, draws inspiration from the region’s rugged beauty, weaving in elements of local flora, natural materials, and sweeping views of the city skyline and waterfront. The drink menu features ingredient-focused cocktails organized by ice to pay homage to the name Firn, which refers to the compacted snow found on nearby glaciers, alongside a wine list that spotlights Pacific Northwest vineyards.
Like all Populus Hotels, Populus Seattle is committed to being carbon positive – meaning it sequesters more carbon in biomass and soil than it emits through both embodied and operational activities over its full lifecycle. The hotel’s sustainability strategy includes preserving and revitalising a historic structure, reducing its embodied carbon footprint by 36 percent—the equivalent of 2.2 million miles driven or 492 tons of coal burned. Rather than constructing a new building or an onsite parking garage, the hotel encourages a pedestrian-friendly lifestyle and avoids additional carbon-intensive development, along with design choices like adding new insulated windows, which increase natural light while lowering energy use.
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As the country’s second carbon positive hotel, Populus Seattle follows a rigorous Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impact of every material, system, and process from construction to decommissioning. The team identified opportunities to reduce embodied and operational carbon through low-impact means and methods, renewable energy, and waste reduction strategies. After every possible reduction was implemented, the property offset the remaining embodied carbon footprint – including the building’s core, shell, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing – through the acquisition of high integrity carbon credits as a part of its evolving, nature-based, emissions drawdown strategy. For this latest initiative, Populus Seattle worked with King County’s Forest Carbon Program to acquire high integrity, Verra certified forest carbon credits from King County-based projects whose core impacts include supporting land conservation, new parks, and greenspaces.
Continuing a program launched at Populus Denver, Populus Seattle opens with its One Night, One Tree program, which plants a tree for every night’s stay, creating a tangible and positive impact on local forests. Additional efforts include partnering with local farms for regenerative practices, using 100 percent renewable electricity, composting all food waste, and embodying an overall reverence for nature that connects guests to the natural world.
Main image credit: Ric Stovall
Get ready to be inspired – 
