Gas Station Transformed into LEED Gold Hotel

If you are planning to visit Healdsburg in the wine country of Northern California, try to check out the LEED Gold certified h2hotel in between your wine tasting. Designed by award-winning David Baker Architects and selected by Fodor’s 100 Hotels 2012 as one of the top recommended hotels in the world, the 36-room inn is hip, eco-chic, and green.

h2hotel in Healdsburg, California is designed by San Francisco-based David Baker Architects. (Photo by Bruce Damonte)

h2hotel’s lobby with a custom zinc "receptobar" for check-in, coffee, or cocktails, in Healdsburg, California. (Photo by Bruce Damonte) — h2hotel’s lobby with a custom zinc “receptobar” for check-in, coffee, or cocktails, in Healdsburg, California. (Photo by Bruce Damonte)

In a former lifetime, the site on Healdsburg Avenue housed a gas station. The site reclamation and transformation into a hotel is a key part of the restoration of the town’s Foss Creek. h2hotel is sited to embrace the adjacent creek, preserve an old Live Oak tree, and restore the surrounding creek banks.

The “chill space” in h2hotel, Healdsburg, California. (Photo by Zubin Shroff)

The h2hotel in Healdsburg, California sports an eye-catching sign and glass facades accented with crawling vines. (Photo by Bruce Damonte)

The building’s design creates a new type of reception/lobby area that is fluid and transparent, showcasing views to the artwork throughout, the hotel’s Mediterranean restaurant Spoonbar!, and the outdoor solar-heated pool. Environmentally friendly interior finishes and outdoor landscaping, an undulating green roof, and the hotel’s fleet of bicycles top off an eco-conscious hotel experience.