The Ace Hotel with chic and bohemian addresses is coming to Toronto. For its first Canadian brand, the chain invited artists to take over the place with their creativity, making it the ideal base for (re)discovering the Queen City and picking up decorative ideas for the home.
Posted at 11:30 a.m.
Sign of our era in search of unique experiences, boutique hotels arouse new desires for escape based as much on the charm of a place of stay as on the interest of a destination, and invite you to explore quietly the scale of a neighborhood. The Ace Hotel Toronto, which has just opened in a historic corner of the city center, relies on this approach which revives the memory of the trips of yesteryear, those where one took the time to appreciate an extraordinary moment.
After Seattle, Portland, New York, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Kyoto, Brooklyn and Sydney, the group Ace, founded in the United States in 1999, is coming to Canada. It is in the Garment District, the heart of the textile industry at the beginning of the last century, that he chose to take root, a few minutes walk from Queen Street West and its pretty retro shop windows.
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PHOTO WILLIAM JESS LAIRD, PROVIDED BY THE ACE HOTEL TORONTO
The Alder restaurant, where you can savor the cuisine with Mediterranean accents by chef Patrick Kiss
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PHOTO WILLIAM JESS LAIRD, PROVIDED BY THE ACE HOTEL TORONTO
The rooms are equipped with deep benches clad in wood, facing the windows.
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PHOTO WILLIAM JESS LAIRD, PROVIDED BY THE ACE HOTEL TORONTO
The hotel lobby, in the form of a plateau, is distinguished by its monumental concrete arches.
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PHOTO WILLIAM JESS LAIRD, PROVIDED BY THE ACE HOTEL TORONTO
The 14-storey building was designed by Shim-Sutcliffe Architects.
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True to form, the Atelier Ace team of designers turned to local talent to integrate their hotel into the existing urban fabric.
She entrusted the Shim-Sutcliffe Architects office with the task of designing a 14-storey building, whose brick facade with Art Deco lines recalls that of the surrounding industrial buildings. The impressive concrete arches inside, of the order of those you cross in old stations, also seem to have been there for decades. On the upper floors, the 123 rooms suggest, in a much more intimate way, forest cabins with deep banquette corners facing the windows, dressed in wood to get closer to the outside, whatever the weather.
Gourmets will take advantage of their Toronto getaway to discover the wood-fired Mediterranean cuisine of chef Patrick Kiss, owner of the renowned Alo, while admiring the Skyline deployed over three floors by architect Howard Sutcliffe, a work inspired by the shimmer of the sun on Lake Ontario.
You should also keep an eye out for the details of the decor here, since many emerging Canadian artists have been invited to leave their mark in the rooms and common areas. There are a few Quebecers there, such as David Umemoto, who imagined sculptural pieces for the rooftop bar (which is scheduled to open by the end of the year), or Concrete Cat with concrete discs colors on the table d’hôte and the DJ station in the lobby. Because this is where the interest of a place of passage like the Ace lies, in highlighting the know-how of those who give a city its soul. As a privileged observatory of a creative scene often unsuspected by tourists.