Hyatt Regency Hotel

High visibility marks this hotel on the Charles River, its basic triangular shape morphing into a sculptural ziggurat when viewed in motion. The main entrance is the driveway, set back from the street and adjoining a three-story garage. A relatively small Hyatt (fewer than five hundred rooms), it resembles its hotel chain in the interior, dominated by the fourteen-story atrium adorned with trees, plantings, and fountains and, not least, two glass-enclosed elevators. A grand window facade interrupts the brick and concrete on the outside; marked by exposed steel trusses, it suffuses the inside with natural light. Near this window on the four upper stories, Richard Haas's trompe-l'oeil fresco depicts the front of a Venetian palace. Restaurants, cafés, balconies, and open corridors overlooking the lobby create an animated atmosphere. The hotel's principal attraction is the Spinnaker, the slowly revolving rooftop restaurant that provides guests with nearly 360-degree panoramic views of Boston and Cambridge.