h2hotel

Just three or four decades on from the beginning of the great Northern California wine boom, and finally a local style is emerging. Italian and French architecture made sense in the early years, when the wineries of the Napa and Sonoma valleys were still striving to be taken as seriously as their European counterparts. But today’s California has a homegrown architectural tradition, a fine example of which is downtown Healdsburg’s decidedly modern h2hotel.

No longer does it take a villa, you could say, to signify a wine-country hotel. H2hotel makes the most of a striking modernist form by the San Francisco architect David Baker, who’s in full urban-rustic mode here; the geometric shapes and large blocks of color are tempered by an undulating, wave-shaped green roof on the one hand, and some cheeky little Italian-style balconies on the other.

Healdsburg isn’t exactly a major metropolis, but make no mistake, this is urban living. Rooms are bright and sunny, outfitted like stylish little apartments, and a bike-share service is available, for getting around sans motor — and there’s bike parking on the ground floor as well, in case you brought your own. The in-house restaurant, Spoonbar, serves Mediterranean cuisine and high-end cocktails, and the location, right on the town’s main drag, offers easy access to a number of fine restaurants, as well as the Hotel Healdsburg, the h2hotel’s sister property.