With a variety of seating nooks and a warm, casually elegant aesthetic, the first floor of the new Atlas Hotel in Allston encourages visitors to stay a while. The hope is that this intentional design choice will be availed by hotel guests and local neighbors alike.

“We call this space ‘Allston’s living room,’ and we really want the community to feel comfortable here,” said the hotel’s managing director, Arnaldo Almonte.

And on a recent visit just a few weeks after the Hotel opened at the end of January, people were scattered throughout the space chatting and working on laptops, exactly as intended. 

The Atlas Hotel, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects, is the latest building to open on Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus (ERC), with 246 rooms, including 12 suites. Along with the ERC’s David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University, the hotel will support the ERC’s mission to bring diverse groups from teaching, research, business, and learning together in this burgeoning innovation district. The hotel was developed by Tishman Speyer, and is managed by Highgate group.

Directly adjacent to the “living room” is the lounge area for Ama, the hotel’s ground floor restaurant, led by local restaurateurs Biplaw Rai and Nyacko Pearl Perry of Pearl & Law Hospitality, creators and owners of Dorchester’s Comfort Kitchen.

“We call this space ‘Allston’s living room,’ and we really want the community to feel comfortable here.”

Arnaldo Almonte, Atlas managing director

“Because it’s attached to the hotel, we knew the lounge area was important as a place where people could continue their conversations from meetings or conferences, or just hang out and relax,” explained Rai. The rest of the dining spaces for Ama are tucked behind a large bar with views of the interior courtyard where there is a seasonal outdoor dining area.

Ama, which means “mother” in Nepali, embraces a theme of caregiving, from menu offerings such as soups and pork belly, to the ergonomic design of the bar to support the health of bar staff, to the art create.

“We can only do this kind of project with the community — we understand being in a hotel might be a barrier for neighbors to want to come in, but we really want everyone to come, linger, and enjoy their time here,” said Rai.

The hotel incorporates art and photos from Boston artists throughout the spaces. Among them: Edward Boches’ photos from his “Postcards from Allston” series, which was featured at the Harvard Ed Portal’s Crossings Gallery in 2022. Ama further connects the local Allston-Brighton art community and the Ed Portal with two collaborative pieces from payal kumar and Nina Bhattacharya, both of whom recently exhibited their work at the Crossings Gallery.

“In collaborating with the Ama at the Atlas team, it became so clear that every person carried a story of a caregiver with them shaping their own journeys as caregivers,” kumar and Bhattacharya wrote in a statement. “It was important to us to uplift these beautiful intergenerational stories through our artwork and to ground the space in what is often unseen. We drew on sense memories elicited during a workshop with staff to design pieces that make visible the care, dignity, and labor at the heart of nourishment.”

Later this spring, the Pearl & Law team will expand their offerings at the Atlas when they open a separate rooftop space called Foxglove Terrace, designed to create the atmosphere of an Asian night market. The indoor and outdoor spaces will offer dramatic views of the Charles River, Cambridge, and Boston, highlighting the Atlas’ unique location.

“We really see the Atlas as not only the hospitality hub for the Enterprise Research Campus, but also as a launching pad for visitors to explore this side of Boston and Cambridge. Allston is easy to access from east, west, north, and south, and we pull together many international influences in this neighborhood, from Lebanese, to Cantonese, and now Nepalese with Ama. I think this combination of diversity and accessibility is an amazing draw for the community and our guests,” said Almonte.

The hotel was created with the proximity to Harvard Business School and the Science and Engineering Complex in mind as those audiences are equally important to the Atlas. Onsite meeting rooms have been designed to complement the larger conference spaces at the Rubenstein Treehouse next door.

“We know there is a wide web of Harvard Schools and programs and we want all Harvard affiliates, from various Schools to alumni, to join us here,” said Almonte. “We want this to be a gathering place for the existing neighbors, for people who are coming to visit, for people who are at the Rubenstein Treehouse for a conference. It really is supposed to be a place to foster organic interactions, and further the vibrancy of the ERC, and the broader neighborhood.”