Populus Seattle / The Miller Hull Partnership

Architects: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Year: 2025
Photography: Duy Dang, Ric Stovall
Lead Architects: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Interior Design: Curioso
Landscape Architecture: Site Workshop
Structural Engineering: Coughlin Porter Lundeen
Civil Engineering: MIG
Contractor: JTM Construction
Envelope Consultant: Morrison Hershfield
Acoustical Consultant: Tenor
Vertical Transportation Consultant: Lerch Bates
Fire and Life Safety Code: Holmes Fire
Historic Report: Kathryn Rogers Merlino
Art Curator: ARTXIV
Management: Aparium Hotel Group
Owner and Developer: Urban Villages
City: Seattle, Washington
Country: United States

Populus Seattle transforms the 1907 Westland Building in Seattle’s Pioneer Square into a 120-room boutique hotel designed by The Miller Hull Partnership for Urban Villages. Part of the RailSpur micro-district, the project adapts a historic steam supply warehouse into a hospitality destination that blends preservation with innovation. The design expands a central Sky Court for daylight and ventilation, reconfigures the vertical circulation to improve access, and introduces seismic upgrades that respect the building’s original brick structure. Collaborating with the National Park Service, the team ensured compliance with historic standards while pioneering local zoning reform that enabled Pioneer Square’s first rooftop bar. With interiors by Curioso and landscape design by Site Workshop, Populus Seattle represents a new model of adaptive reuse that integrates architecture, policy, and cultural revitalization to renew Seattle’s oldest neighborhood.

Populus seattle / the miller hull partnership

In Seattle’s Pioneer Square, Populus Seattle redefines adaptive reuse as both an act of preservation and urban renewal. The Miller Hull Partnership’s design for Urban Villages reimagines the 1907 Westland Building—once a steam supply warehouse—as a contemporary hotel that strengthens its community through sensitive intervention. Situated within RailSpur, a growing micro-district built around historic rail infrastructure, the project serves as a keystone in the area’s broader revitalization, balancing heritage with sustainability and public engagement.

Central to this transformation is the resolution of the building’s structural and spatial limitations. The original deep floor plates restricted natural light and air circulation, posing a challenge for hotel programming. Miller Hull responded by expanding a central Sky Court first introduced in 1979, inserting a skylight supported by reclaimed timber joists. This new void draws light through the heart of the building, creating a luminous connection between the lobby, restaurant, and guestrooms while simultaneously strengthening the structure that time and previous interventions had weakened.

Equally significant was the repositioning of the building’s vertical core, a decision that reestablished a long-blocked pedestrian passage between the main entrance and an alley-side dining space. Working closely with Coughlin Porter Lundeen, Miller Hull designed the core to act as both a circulation hub and a seismic stabilizer, avoiding intrusive bracing that would have compromised the building’s interiors or historic facade. The solution unites functionality, safety, and respect for architectural heritage, embodying the project’s measured balance between old and new.

The reactivation of the RailSpur alley exemplifies this dialogue between infrastructure and experience. A sheltered dining area now extends the hotel’s social life outdoors, occupying a platform built above an existing transformer vault. Its removable roof structure—engineered to accommodate future utility access—represents a seamless integration of technical necessity and design intent. This public-facing addition reanimates an overlooked corridor, reinforcing the project’s goal of reconnecting private enterprise with civic vitality.

Beyond architecture, Populus Seattle’s team also influenced citywide policy. By working with local authorities, Urban Villages and Miller Hull applied new mass timber construction codes to a historic reuse project—an unprecedented move in Seattle. Simultaneously, they led efforts to amend zoning ordinances that once prohibited rooftop food and beverage service in Pioneer Square. These legal and regulatory victories enabled the creation of the district’s first rooftop bar, setting a precedent for future adaptive reuse in heritage contexts across the city.

Inside, the hotel reflects a layered narrative of craftsmanship and regional identity. Curioso’s interiors emphasize biophilic design, bringing greenery and natural materials into restored spaces defined by exposed Douglas Fir beams and preserved brickwork. Artworks curated by ARTXIV and lighting filtered through the Sky Court establish a tactile connection to the Pacific Northwest’s landscape. The second-floor solarium blurs boundaries between interior and exterior, while Site Workshop’s rooftop terrace integrates native plantings with panoramic city views, completing a vertical journey from the historic ground plane to the contemporary skyline.

As part of the RailSpur initiative, Populus Seattle contributes to the reemergence of Pioneer Square as a walkable, culturally vibrant district. The project demonstrates how adaptive reuse can anchor a broader process of neighborhood regeneration—reviving not only buildings but the social and economic life that surrounds them. Through architectural precision, community collaboration, and environmental mindfulness, Populus Seattle embodies a holistic model for urban renewal rooted in authenticity and place.

Ultimately, the project’s impact extends beyond its walls. Populus Seattle illustrates how design, policy, and preservation can align to create a living monument to continuity and change. By reinterpreting a 20th-century industrial relic for the needs of a 21st-century city, The Miller Hull Partnership and its collaborators have crafted more than a hotel—they have created a framework for urban resilience and a testament to Seattle’s evolving architectural legacy.