When Four Seasons asked George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg to design a hotel, the Toronto-based architects confessed they had never worked on a luxury hotel. To their surprise, that's what the resort chain--which was reputed for high-class service but not necessarily high-class design--was looking for. "Going to most hotels is like going to Grandma's bedroom. It's fussy and old-fashioned. They wanted a modern approach," says Pushelberg. "It's all in the details and subtlety, so it can resonate with someone 65 years old but also with someone who's 45."
One way Yabu and Pushelberg created this subtle detail in Four Seasons Tokyo,...