Downtown Santa Monica Hotels are designed by Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio + Gene Fong Associates, The process of designing two new hotels at 5th Street and Colorado Avenue in downtown Santa Monica, a site that serves as a vital entry point into the City, presented unique challenges. Such a prominent location – both a gateway to the City and just blocks away from popular attractions like the famed Santa Monica Pier and 3rd Street Promenade – meant that not just any designs would do. The new hotels would not only have to meet the highest of aesthetic design standards, but they would also have to work within the City’s multi-modal transportation network.Photography: Christine Gatti/Dylan CrossGwynne Pugh Urban Studio (GP-US) was hired to provide a design tailored to the City that would incorporate a sensitive urban design and pedestrian approach to inform the buildings’ orientation and character. Gene Fong Associates served as the Executive Architect on the project.Photography: Christine Gatti/Dylan CrossWhile both structures share some design traits – such as their interior courts that provide for daylight, cross-ventilation, and general interest shops for hotel patrons – it was important that each has its own identity. The orange metal panels on the Courtyard by Marriott give the hotel its dramatic presence, while slight color variation within the panels adds texture, rhythm, and dynamism. A cantilevered pool deck sits just over...