Sorrento Hotel Gets a Huge Makeover
Local designers burnish the klondike–era Sorrento Hotel
By Jennifer McCullum July 15, 2015
This article originally appeared in the August 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.
More than 100 years after Seattle’s oldest continuously running hotel opened its doors, the Sorrento has a new look. Original guests—from Gold Rush millionaires and Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition attendees—treated the Italian Renaissance–inspired building on First Hill like their second residence. And the hotel-wide renovation embraces that spirit of a luxury home with a modern aesthetic, especially in three new suites, each decorated by a local design luminary.
Guests checking into designer April Pride’s Suite 608 can expect to see the Sorrento’s classic heritage reflected in the men’s-smoking-lounge-inspired space featuring oil portraits, leather and teak-framed maps. Nicole Murillo, lead designer for Brian Paquette Interiors, used a palette of Pacific Northwest blues and grays as the backdrop for selected works by local artists. Codor Design’s Sterling Voss and artist Tamara Codor covered some of their suite’s existing furniture with Renaissance-style murals, mixing the hotel’s traditional design with the fantastical.
Also new: the Dunbar Room restaurant, The Garden patio dining area and a revamped Fireside Room.
Designer Suites run $249–$849 per night; available to book exclusively by phone. 900 Madison St.; 206.622.6400; hotelsorrento.com.
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