Hotel Max

What used to be the wholly unremarkable downtown Hotel Vance is now making a play for the title of Seattle’s hippest hotel, under a new name: Hotel Max. To that end, it’s had something of a modern-design makeover, and the new look, all brightly colored modern furnishings against dark masculine backgrounds (is slate gray the new off-white?) comes off vaguely Nordic, rather than Northwestern-rustic.

Still, there’s no shortage of local color. Works by Seattle artists, including a collection of Seattle rock photography, adorn the walls of the public spaces, and every guest room’s door is covered in a full-length black-and-white photo print. Inside, the rooms continue in the same vein, a sort of simple-chic aesthetic, with a few flourishes of luxury, including king beds (in the largest rooms) piled high with pillows from a custom menu.

With 163 rooms, Hotel Max is a bit on the large side for a design-happy boutique hotel; in a town like Seattle the design hotels have to pull double duty as business hotels as well. Both audiences end up well served by the Max — though there’s nothing outrageously experimental that would scare away the businessmen, the hotel’s hipster bona fides are most definitely in order.