Ace Hotel Toronto by Shim-Sutcliffe with Little-Wing Lee of Atelier Ace
Ace Hotel Toronto embraces history and nostalgia, delivering the WOW factor we’ve come to expect from each and every Ace Hotel around the globe.
Words: Hande Renshaw I Photography: William Jess Laird
Photo: William Jess Laird
Photo: William Jess Laird
Tucked in the corner of Camden and Brant Street, the most recently designed and opened Ace Hotel is just as incredible as its predecessors across the globe, including Seattle, New York, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Kyoto, Brooklyn and of course, Sydney.
The brand’s inaugural home in Canada, opened its doors earlier this year, a welcome addition to the area.
‘Long a leading global light for its forward-thinking approach to city-making and design, Toronto is a city that embraces originality and is rooted in the same open-to-all philosophy that founded Ace,’ says Brad Wilson, CEO, Atelier Ace/Ace Hotel Group.
Ace Hotel Toronto stands in the city’s historic Garment District, a neighborhood ignited by innovation and industry at the start of the 20th century, once a manufacturing center that grew into an influential artistic hub.
At a nexus of neighborhoods including Queen West, Downtown and Chinatown, and within walking distance of famed music venues, galleries, bars and restaurants, the hotel joins an area long defined by many of the independently minded and community-focused institutions that form the city’s cultural backbone.
Together with Shim-Sutcliffe and Atelier Ace’s director, Little-Wing Lee, rose to the occasion of celebrating the evolving narrative of the site in which the hotel stands — nuanced with a touch of nostalgia and contemporary accents.
Although a new building, the robust, solid architecture of Ace Hotel Toronto was designed to convey timelessness, and feels effortlessly at home among its surroundings. Shim-Sutcliffe Architects’ work — imbued with modesty, honesty, and an appreciation of place, as exemplified by the studio’s famed Integral House — evokes a particularly Canadian spirit and feeling.
“We could not be more proud to open Ace Hotel Toronto — the architectural magnificence of Shim- Sutcliffe Architects’ work has created a bona fide wonder. They have built an inherently civic space that respects the neighborhood’s storied past while nurturing its future.”
Inside, the reception is made of light-coloured glazed bricks to the classy bar, which openly greets the arrangement lounge composed of bespoke or sourced furniture. In contrast, the hotel’s Alder restaurant shifts to a darker tone.
Inside the restaurant, sunken wood-fired copper elements halo theatrically against the ebony walls and darker floor tiles, presenting a tune that reflects the location’s role of being ‘the (epicentre) of Toronto’s art and music scene in the 1970’s and 80’s’.
Ace Toronto plays homage to art and culture (which we are major fans of), with an original art program that features pieces by nearly 40 artists, the majority of whom share ties to the city. The far-reaching works enrich the hotel’s public and private spaces and glow of humanity.
Guest suites are conceived as restful urban cabins, with Douglas fir paneling, copper accents, custom Shim- Sutcliffe lighting and side tables, and deep-set window benches built into the structure offering connection to the city’s shifting seasons and light. As with all Ace Hotel’s the details are on point – each suite comes with an in-room vinyl collection curated by independent Toronto record label Arts & Crafts.
Considered materials, constructed time, tremendous shifts of scale and sensitivity to place coalesce at Ace Hotel Toronto, bringing a future-facing structure and unprecedented creative center to the city.
As with most of Ace’s hotel destinations, the strong urge to make a reservation immediately is hard to resist!
