Facing Seoul City Hall plaza across one of the capital's most historically charged roundabouts, a seventeen-storey block of warm-toned stone and gridded windows has anchored Taepyeongno since 1976. The Plaza Seoul, which joined Marriott's Autograph Collection after a comprehensive renovation, holds a position in the city's civic geography that few hotels anywhere can claim — directly opposite the neo-Renaissance City Hall, with Namdaemun Gate visible down the boulevard and N Seoul Tower catching the evening light over the roofline in the distance. The renovation introduced two distinct personalities under one roof. Floors given over to the Club rooms carry a restrained palette of bleached oak panelling, dark walnut furniture with circular cutouts, and cream upholstery punctuated by acid-yellow accent lamps — warm and considered, with the measured confidence of mid-2000s Seoul design at its most assured. The Boutique floors take a different register entirely: aubergine walls, mauve lacquered ceilings, and sharp black-and-white scatter cushions give those rooms the atmosphere of a contemporary art hotel. The lobby bar makes the strongest visual statement in the building, its dark coffered ceiling punctuated by oversized circular backlit panels suspended above curved leather banquettes and zebrawood tables, with fringed pendant lights in deep plum adding theatricality. High on the building, the indoor pool sits behind a full curtain wall of cross-braced glazing, white colonnades and aqua mosaic tile giving the space an unexpectedly classical composure above the Seoul skyline.

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