David Baker Architects’ Harmon Guest House was developed using their community-based hospitality approach. The public roof deck and park invite the public in, and the facade-integrated county bus stop promotes transit use. Its event spaces are used freely by local nonprofits and organizations, creating de facto community centers for the town.
BuildingGreen's Issue 03 takes up climate justice—the recognition that the communities most affected by a changing climate deserve a hand in shaping how we build in response. Its featured article “Tread Lightly,’’ by Joann Plockova, profiles destinations that are rooted in place, and returns to David Baker Architect's Harmon Guest House throughout as an example of hospitality built with a community rather than simply for its guests.
“DBA has a philosophy that any building—office, chapel, housing or hotel—should respond to the people and place that it serves,” says DBA principal Brett Randall Jones, describing the firm's approach to community-based hospitality.
The article organizes its examples around three ideas as sections: designing with place, for community, and for resiliency. Harmon Guest House is referenced in all three, alongside Saunders Architecture's Fogo Island Inn, Studio Gang's Populus, and Reimagine's Métis Crossing Lodge.
Across the piece, photography of Harmon Guest House's warm, regional materials sets the tone—the reclaimed-redwood sun shading that gives the facade its texture, a reception desk is milled from a local windfallen eucalyptus, and tree-shaded walking paths connect the building to the creekside.
The hotel reflects the generosity of spirit central to DBA: a custom footbridge over Foss Creek connects it to an adjoining creekside park, a rooftop lounge is Healdsburg's first open to the public, and a county bus stop is built into its facade.
The hotel also took part in restoring the creek it sits beside. “To protect and restore the Russian River Watershed, the Healdsburg community initiated a long-term effort to rehabilitate Foss Creek, a tributary that had been degraded by decades of culvertization,” says Jones. The hotel prioritizes ecological health through creek-bank restoration, on-site biofiltration of stormwater runoff, invasive species removal, and extensive native plantings.
Learn more on BuildingGreen's website (full article available to subscribers).
