San Francisco's newest and "greenest" hotel—the Orchard Garden Hotel—is one of California's first hotels built to the specifications of the LEED® Green Building Rating SystemTM.
The $25 million, 86-room boutique hotel is set in the heart of San Francisco-just one block from Union Square, steps away from the Chinatown gate and around the corner from the Financial District.
Architecture International designed the hotel, which was built by the green building team at Swinerton Builders. Eco-friendly construction materials include concrete made with fly ash, a byproduct of recycling coal, and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, indicating it was harvested in a sustainable manner. Environmentally sustainable building practices were used during construction, as debris was diverted from landfill disposal by redirecting recyclable material back to the manufacturing stream.
The Orchard Garden Hotel was designed to achieve LEED certification for energy use, lighting, water and material use, as well as by incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies.
Architecture International worked with San Francisco-based Luna Textiles to develop drapery, sheers, upholstery, coverlets and shower curtains in soothing, spa-inspired tones. The fabrics are featured in every guest room and are made with recycled polyester and are machine-washable to avoid the chemicals that come with dry cleaning.
The design team at Architecture International worked with Luna Textiles to develop a line of fabrics for drapery, upholstery, coverlets and shower curtains that are made with recycled polyester and are machine-washable-avoiding chemicals associated with dry cleaning.
"From our point of view, the opportunity to create a green hotel environment would, by its nature, enhance the beauty and appeal of the hotel," notes Sherry Caplan, IIDA, one of Architecture International's founding principals. "The sophisticated patterns and color palettes of the textiles, the materials they are made of, and how they are made, all become an inherent part of our ability to design an elegant environment for guests."
The building is well insulated, resulting in less energy use for heating and air conditioning and making the guest rooms very quiet. Water faucets and toilets are "low-flow," while specially designed carpets from Bentley Prince Street include recycled content and have low chemical emissions. Bentley Prince Street worked closely with the design team to collaborate on the style and coloration of carpets for the hotel guest rooms, hotel corridors and the main lobby areas.
In addition to providing the right design solution for the Orchard Garden Hotel, these products directly contributed toward LEED points under the "materials and resource" category by using a manufacturer within a 500-mile radius of the project site.