The Grand Mansion Hotel sits atop a historical museum on the site of a former palace, the ruins of which have been preserved and are now an extension of the main museum exhibit, with parts that can be seen across the street. The overall design concept was to reinterpret a traditional leisure garden featuring Japanese cherry, bamboo, and maple trees, and the greenery here forms a link with the palace garden across the way. A simple and serene rooftop garden terrace, located on the museum/hotel’s third level, is also designed to draw your eye across the street to the palace ground. Sitting there with the cascading sounds of water falling and a view of the city in the distance may indeed encourage one’s thoughts to travel back to a simpler time. The primary water feature has infinity edge and provides a reflective surface to recall and merge the historical ground of the ancient past to the present. Sycamore trees along the site’s edge provide a screen for the museum and a hardscape plaza at ground level accommodates street drop-off for guests.