This building is a joyful experiment with the Baroque painting technique of trompe l’oeil. Element is a fresh and innovative hotel brand that needed a facade to match—but the straightforward massing, layout, materials and budget for the building were non-negotiable. We turned to paint for the answer.
The perfectly rectangular building is disrupted by a few cantilevering window units. The rest of the exterior is animated by painted shadows designed to trick the eye into seeing depth. Once a day the painted shadows line up with the natural shadows, but most of the time the curious effect turns heads as a memorable icon for Harrison.
