LEED Gold Shore Hotel is Santa Monica's New Beach Retreat

The Shore Hotel indicates the level of environmental awareness present in the coastal Southern California city of Santa Monica, by setting an eco-friendly standard as the first LEED Gold certified hotel to be built there.

A contemporary, bright alternative to chain hotels, the boutique hotel is owned by the Farzam family. The ultra-modern retreat replaced two old hotels on Ocean Avenue, also owned by the Farzams. They were torn down and Gensler was in charge of designing the new hotel. They employed a simple yet elegant contemporary design; all 164 rooms in the U-shaped hotel have private ocean-facing balconies. Beauty and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. Not only is the hotel beautiful, but it is also green – highly energy efficient and built with sustainable materials. Some of the eco-friendly features include a solar-thermal heated pool, a high performance envelope and roof-mounted solar panels, double-paned soundproof glass, and high efficiency boilers and burners. The hotel conserves water by capturing and storing stormwater for landscaping. Each room is angled toward the sun to capture sunlight. This, along with high-efficiency toilets and low-flow yet very pleasant showerheads  reduces the need for electricity. Another unique green feature is the “Green Concierge” service at the hotel. They offer suggestions for local green establishments, like organic restaurants, farmer’s markets, places to rent bicycles and hybrid taxis. They will also happily walk you through the hotel and explain and highlight the many environmentally-friendly features at the hotel.

If you have to be stuck inside for a meeting, the Shore Hotel is not a bad locale.

Or you can transition the meeting into a beautiful indoor/outdoor event space.

One of the best areas of the hotel is the meeting and event space – 800 sq ft of indoor space and 1,150 sq ft of outdoor space. Plus, the courtyard meeting room has a folding glass wall to combine the spaces for open air functions. Read more: Gensler’s Shore Hotel is a LEED Gold Beach Retreat in Santa Monica Shore Hotel-Gensler – Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building