Within the rapidly evolving Silicon Valley the Nobu Palo Alto Hotel is intended to express a subtlety of contrasts to its urban setting. It inverts the relationship to the City, with the entire ground floor dedicated to serving public patrons. The eight-story project features multiple full-service restaurant & bar experiences on the ground floor, with the lobby, conference rooms, and guest suites above. Changing the entry experience was key to celebrating this. Patrons enter through a new bronze portal with large glass windows to increase transparency, and an indoor / outdoor gravel garden blurs the edge of the hotel and the street. Materials played a key role in unifying but creating distinct guest experiences between the ground floor dining & gathering spaces and the Hotel areas above. The space draws on signature Nobu design elements combined with traditional Japanese materials and an open environment to engage the street front. The ground floor restaurant and lounge is layered with warm wood wainscoting, flooring, and furniture, while back-lit from rice-paper glass walls. For the Hotel reception and guestrooms, this relationship to light and dark is inverted; light marble flooring, bleached white oak paneling, and grasscloth wall covering contrast moments of rich bronze and teak details. The furnishings throughout the property compliment the refined simplicity of the design. This simplicity belies the state-of-the-art technology features integrated throughout, fitting of the relationship of Nobu to the tech-forward City of Palo Alto.