Opened in late May after two years of construction, Populus Seattle is already making an impression with its regenerative design, expansive art program, and deep ties to the neighborhood. Housed in the 1907 Westland Building, a former steam supply warehouse, the hotel anchors RailSpur, a placemaking initiative that connects three historic structures in Pioneer Square through alleys that draw in the public with the promise of art and cocktails.

“We wanted to create a hotel that becomes part of the cultural and physical infrastructure of the area,” says Jon Buerge, president of the Colorado-based Urban Villages, which developed both RailSpur and Populus. It’s a fitting ambition for a hotel set amid cobblestone streets and Romanesque facades, just blocks from Seattle’s working waterfront and flanked by Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park.

But Populus Seattle isn’t just another design-forward newcomer among edgy art galleries and expertly curated indie boutiques. (It is the second outpost of the Populus brand, following its flagship Denver location, which opened last October to much fanfare.)

“You’re stepping into an experience that was designed to connect people to the city, to the past, to what’s next,” says hotel general manager Rod Lapasin. I thought about that a lot as I explored the hotel’s thoughtful design, neighborhood ties, layered storytelling built into its bones, and a mission that extends beyond aesthetics.

Below is my full review of Populus Seattle.

The Rooms

It was surprisingly sunny in Seattle on the day I arrived, but I must confess I didn’t take advantage of the fair weather. Upon entering my corner Douglas Fir Studio, a junior suite with two different street views, a window seat, and a generously sized bathroom decked out in plenty of luxe marble and industrial steel-framed glass, I decide to forgo the mile-long saunter to the Overlook Walk, a new elevated park space at the waterfront. Instead, I steeped in the deep soaking tub to unwind from the bustle of SeaTac Airport before swaddling into a bathrobe with a cup of hojicha tea.

Given the adaptive reuse of a 1907 warehouse, all 120 rooms at Populus Seattle, from the standard Lupine room (comfortable, though quite cozy) to the Summit Suite (this space reads more like a luxe pied-à-terre, complete with private cityview terrace), are steeped in the warmth and sentiment of time passed.

Thick Douglas fir beams, original to the structure, lend a distinctly woodsy, Pacific Northwest touch to the otherwise contemporary rooms. The accommodations feature brass lighting, velvet seating, and commissioned art framed in salvaged timber that once lined the warehouse floors. These pieces hang against richly hued walls, while exposed-brick facades add industrial character. The occasional siren or celebratory whoop was just a streetwise soundtrack that rooted me in a dynamic neighborhood where the art scene, stadium buzz, and working waterfront converge.

If you’re the kind of traveler who judges a hotel by its room amenities, then you’ll be happy to find plush Matouk robes and towels, bath products by Aesop, Fellow electric kettles, and sustainable, direct-trade java from Monorail Espresso, Seattle’s first coffee cart. As an example of the design team’s attention to detail, the packaging for the single-serve pour-over depicts “Cats Cradle No. 2,” a painting by local artist Becca Fuhrman, whose work is on view throughout the hotel. “Our connectedness to the community is a many-layered thing,” Lapasin says. “It all comes together from the past and the present to become the story of Populus Seattle.”

Food & Drink

Around happy hour, a particularly welcoming phenomenon draws folks milling about the hotel’s airy lobby deeper into the building: the convivial clamor emanating from Salt Harvest, its signature restaurant, located on the second floor. Buerge explained that this sonic seduction was by design. “We placed the bar at the top of the lobby staircase for this exact reason.”

I tried the non-alcoholic Impostore, a bittersweet drink made with Wilderton non-alcoholic aperitivo, and the Bleeding Heart, a floral, bubbly mix of vodka, aloe, strawberry, and cherry blossom that nods to the springtime blooms across Seattle’s University of Washington Quad and city parks. I enjoyed both, but ordered a second round of the Impostore.

At the rooftop cocktail bar Firn (pronounced feern, the German word for the uppermost layer of a glacier), drinks revolve around ice in various forms: crushed (as in the soju-based Green Acres, flavored with apple and shiso), shaved (Get Schwifty is like a vodka-spiked, melony kakigori), or gem-faceted (the Diamond Sea is a smoky, floral milk punch).

Also telling: each afternoon, upon returning from a day of exploring Seattle’s latest cultural offerings (like this floating sauna and this fairly new museum, designed like a fjord), the Populus doormen would greet me with, “Welcome. Heading to Firn?”—a sign of just how quickly the rooftop bar has become a favorite with locals and hotel guests alike.

While ice sets the chill upstairs, down in Salt Harvest, flames crackle. “The restaurant explores fire through Pacific Northwest ingredients from land and sea,” says executive chef Conny Andersson, who hails from Gothenburg, Sweden. (Seattle’s robust Scandinavian population is owed to trades like fishing and boat building, kindred between the two cultures.) “There’s a natural overlap in how both regions approach food—minimalist, ingredient-driven, and rooted in seasonality. It’s how I cook, and it’s how I grew up.”

Nearly every dish on the dinner menu is touched by flame. The Neah Bay salmon is just kissed by the oak-and-almond wood fire, yielding buttery tenderness. The free-range pork chop from Washington’s Pure Country Farm gets more char but remains unctuous, a rarity for such a lean cut. Wild mushroom spätzle is rich and comforting thanks to Beecher’s Flagship cheddar and a ratio of handmade noodles to foraged mushrooms that, to my eye, heavily favors the forest floor. Salmon gravlax, a nod to Andersson’s homeland, is cured with Op Anderson aquavit, evoking the classic curing herbs of caraway and dill, then brushed with an umami-rich espresso honey mustard. For dessert, I opted for the Eton Mess, a cloudlike confection of baked meringue, fresh local berries, and Chantilly cream.

Activities and Amenities

The hotel’s features feel more like immersive touchpoints, designed to invite interaction, spark curiosity, and reflect the city’s creative spirit. Populus Seattle’s commitment to sustainability and art comes together at the entrance, where salvaged tree trunks recall a ghost forest—once-living trees left standing by rising waters and now seen as symbols of regeneration. Just inside, mounted above a living fray of lush foliage, vibrant large-scale paintings reflect a range of visual styles, from psychedelic glitchery (“Garden Sequence 070624” by Przemysław Blejzyk) to folksy surrealism (“We Walked to the Top of the Holy Mountain” by Andrea Heimer) to mystic landscapes (“Night Forest” by Kimberly Trowbridge).

Dom Nieri, founder of local art consultancy ARTXIV, curated a collection of 46 original artworks— including a site-specific installation of moss and rope that will cascade through the hotel’s lightwell later this year—and 295 limited-edition prints by 35 local, regional, and international artists. Each piece was sparked by a single source of inspiration—the Pacific Northwest—and produced during a summer residency at the neighboring RailSpur Manufacturing Building.

“We’d take groups of artists out for plein air painting, riding ferries, going to the beach, and they’d come back to our 10,000-square-foot studio and respond to the experience,” Nieri says. “We brought back the original intent of the building as a working production space.”

All the art is for sale, making the hotel a working gallery that explores themes of place, persistence, and becoming. I imagine which wall in my tiny San Francisco apartment “Holy Mountain” would look best on, and which imaginary bank account I would draw from to purchase it.

Populus also participates in Pioneer Square’s First Thursdays—the longest-running art walk in the country—and plans to host guest-exclusive artist talks in the Nature Library and live performances in the Art Room.

“We’re not doing things for the neighborhood—we’re doing things with it,” adds Nieri. “That means bringing people in, making space for their voices, and letting the work grow from there.”

Family-Friendly Offerings

While Populus Seattle doesn’t have dedicated kids’ programming, it’s far from inhospitable to families. During dinner at Salt Harvest, the family seated next to me ordered off-menu pasta with Parmesan cheese for their three kids, though they ended up stealing bites of dad’s pork chop anyway. The hotel’s walkable Pioneer Square location also makes it easy to explore nearby kid-friendly spots, such as the Seattle Aquarium and the waterfront Great Wheel. Rooms like the Douglas Fir Studio or the Summit Suite offer more breathing room for families.

Accessibility and Sustainability

As a journalist who’s been on the design beat for over two decades, I’ve read enough sustainability claims to be skeptical, but here, I was pleasantly surprised by the specificity. Converting a 1907 brick-and-timber warehouse into a modern boutique hotel drastically cuts carbon emissions by an average of 78 percent compared to new builds, according to industry studies, giving Populus Seattle a significant head start on its goal of being climate regenerative. “The adaptive reuse approach was key,” says Buerge. “It let us preserve character while cutting down on carbon. That’s a big win in both directions.”

Such an ambitious retrofit also meant striking a balance between design ambition and practical considerations. While the dramatic central staircase serves as an architectural centerpiece, spacious elevators and ADA-compliant rooms ensure that access isn’t compromised.

But living the net-positive life isn’t just about renewable power (Populus has committed to sourcing 100 percent of its energy from off-site solar and wind farms), or planting trees (one for every night you stay, through the aptly named One Night, One Tree program), or diligent composting (food waste will be diverted from landfill by onsite BioGreen360 digesters). Even the cafe’s to-go cups are low-impact, made from durable clay, not single-use plastic or paper. Ultimately, it’s about leaving the neighborhood better than you found it.

“We’re not just looking at net zero,” adds Buerge. “Carbon positive means going beyond—regenerating ecosystems and reinvesting in communities.”

Location

RailSpur, a placemaking project by Urban Villages, has transformed the area’s back-of-house service corridors into walkable public spaces. Today, they feature art, patio seating, and independent businesses like Marigold and Mint Botanicals, plus a forthcoming outpost of the national cocktail bar Death & Co. “And Populus is the beating heart of it all,” says Buerge.

Given the buzz around the hotel, it may well become the pulse of historic Pioneer Square. As Seattle’s oldest neighborhood, the area has seen its share of boom-and-bust cycles—from the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which leveled the place, to the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s, when some 70,000 prospectors passed through Seattle en route to the Yukon, turning Pioneer Square into a hub for supplies, lodging, and entertainment.

Despite—or perhaps because of—its gritty reputation, modern-day Pioneer Square holds serious cultural cred, thanks to standout galleries like Greg Kucera, spotlighting contemporary work by emerging Pacific Northwest artists, and Foster/White, long associated with renowned Seattle glass artist Dale Chihuly, as well as indie shops like Flora and Henri, a concept lifestyle boutique next door to the artisanal doughnut cafe General Porpoise. I took great delight in discovering Peter Miller Books + Supplies, a tucked-away gem for architecture and design lovers, where I purchased several Japanese notebooks and Miller’s housekeeping homage, “How to Wash the Dishes.”

It seems the legacy neighborhood is undergoing yet another transformation, with Populus being part of the change.

Book Now

Populus Seattle doesn’t participate in any hotel or credit card loyalty programs, but before booking your stay, check out the hotel’s website for its latest offers and discounts.

Nightly rates at Populus Seattle start at $359 per night.

Every T+L hotel review is written by an editor or reporter who has stayed at the property, and each hotel selected aligns with our core values.