The Palace Hotel in Salmiya was designed by Saleh Al-Mutawa, a Kuwaiti architect. In the article “In Search for a Local Image in the Arab City,” Omar Khattab writes that it was Al-Mutawa’s “dream to revive the traditional architecture of Kuwait.” Khattab continues, “Al Mutawa’s architecture conveys this lost local image… the essence and merits behind his work deserve to be studied before one embarks on a design that needs to reflect a local, yet contemporary, image of Kuwait architecture… others criticize his work as pastiche and stereotyped decoration of traditional forms.” In 1997, Godfrey Goodwin published New Vision in Kuwait about al-Mutawa’s work. Goodwin introduces him, “born into a traditional home in the district of old Kuwait, Saleh al-Mutawa bore witness during his early life to the architectural changes which swept away many of the older buildings in the city. These are replaced with alien styles of building imported from overseas which took nothing from Kuwait’s past.” Some other works by Saleh Al-Mutawa include a shopping mall in Al-Mubarakiya and apartment blocks in Salwa and Jabria, which you can see below.

The book “Kuwait: Enchantment of the World” includes an image of the hotel under construction.

Across the street from the hotel used to be an old house, which you can see below in 2012. It has since been torn down and a drive-through Starbucks built in its place.