You can always count on Kimpton to do something unusual at its hotels. This one pays homage to Seattle’s hometown heroes, like Bill Gates and Jimi Hendrix. You’ll see amusing portraits of them in the lobby, and each room features a “celebrity pillow.” The Palladian was created from a 1910 apartment building near the north end of Pike Place Market and close to the new South Lake Union neighborhood. It’s a sexy hotel, with many furnishings designed by local talent, which means unusual features like sliding “barn doors” for the bathrooms, and bathrooms that combine showers and claw foot tubs. Each has a dark, Northwest color palette that’s enlivened with lovely old rugs and snapping white bedcoverings. And because of the heritage building’s configuration, every room is a different shape. The fitness center is small but well-equipped. There’s a complimentary wine social every evening, complimentary coffee starting at 5:30am, and a fine on-site restaurant, Shaker + Spear (lunch, dinner and weekend brunch). The staff goes out of its way to be helpful. The only downside: no views, thanks to the towers around the hotel.