The architectural character of the hotel is inspired by the regional vernacular, specifically farmhouses and local agricultural buildings found in the surrounding wine country. As seen in the renderings, the building is finished in a combination of lime-washed brick, stucco, and grain-wood siding. The adjacent Gravenstein Court parking lot is converted into a large grove of trees extending the rural character beyond the footprint of the structures.

The building is organized around a sequence of five beautifully landscaped courtyards, each with a distinct image and character, together creating a visual and experiential sequence between open-to-sky and covered spaces. The building is entered in two locations - along McKinley via a covered paseo, and along Gravenstein Court from the drop-off area. Both entries lead one into the first large courtyard from where one enters the lobby, bar, and restaurant.

The 83 hotel rooms are configured around single-loaded and double-loaded arms overlooking the courtyards. The public functions of the hotel, such as the restaurant, meeting rooms, bar, and kitchen are situated closer to McKinley, around the entrance courtyard. The restaurant wraps around to line the street along with more retail to enliven the pedestrian experience. The hotel also has a spa located along and entered from Sebastopol Ave. The proposed building has a gross area of 70,000 SF.

The building’s highest massing is a fourth story rooftop bar which constitutes only 4% percent of the overall footprint, located in the least visible part of the site. The rest of the building is a combination of 2 and 3 stories. This varied massing is a conscious design approach generating a picturesque, and human-scale massing as opposed to a single monolithic and over-scaled building. The result is an aggregate compound of buildings. The roofs are a combination of flat and sloping roofs of varying slopes and materials further breaking down the building scale.

The project will also include a parking lot located at 385 Morris Street, the site of a former concrete batch plant that closed operations many years ago. The parking lot will provide 90 valet spaces for hotel guests (including 12 EV chargers), 76 self-park parking spaces to serve The Barlow (with the ability to add an additional 75 spaces with valet for special events) , and 20 bicycle parking spaces. The parking lot project will significantly improve the environmental health of the batch plant land, much of which is currently covered by an impervious concrete layer and mostly devoid of plant life. In particular, the project will include planting of a large number of native plants and the construction of a bioswale. Additionally, the parking  lot, which abuts the Laguna de Santa Rosa, will include construction of a landscaped promenade and an overlook.  These improvements will help connect the Laguna to The Barlow and Sebastopol by allowing visitors to view and enjoy the Laguna.