Palo Alto Is Getting the Joie de Vivre Design Treatment

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A new boutique hotel will soon be nestled among the tech startups lining the streets around Palo Alto's University Ave. The Epiphany Hotel is Joie de Vivre Hotels' fifth in Silicon Valley (they also have the Avante in Mountain View, Avatar in Santa Clara, and the Domain and Wild Palms in Sunnyvale). The chain specializes in revamping old buildings into chic lodgings, and this project is no different. JDV hired Palo Alto-based Steinberg Architects and McCartan Interior Design (the interior designers behind SF's Hotel Vitale) to completely redesign an 8-story building (formerly a senior residence) into an 86-room hotel.

Guest rooms (and the four rooftop suites) will be furnished with Frette linens, Turkish towels and bathrobes, and toiletries from Malin + Goetz. Rooms will also stock Sausalito-based Fred Water bottles, which are shaped like flasks and can be refilled in the hotel lobby. Local think tank IDEO also consulted on the design to create mezzanine-level meeting and co-working spaces. An 80-seat restaurant and bar will round out the ground level. The hotel is accepting reservations starting from March 15. Expect rates to be higher during the week (for those out-of-town tech industry visitors) than for the weekends.
· New hotel in Palo Alto: Is this a bright idea? [The Los Angeles Times]
· Palo Alto's Epiphany hotel seeks to inspire Silicon Valley [The San Francisco Business Times]
· The Epiphany Hotel [Official Site]