Exclusive first look inside Ace Hotel Toronto

Hotel Designs Ace Hotel Toronto modern guestroom
730 565 Hamish Kilburn
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Exclusive first look inside Ace Hotel Toronto

Opening this summer, Ace Hotel Toronto will be housed in a new building in Toronto’s Garment District designed by award-winning Toronto firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, in collaboration with Atelier Ace’s interior design team. Editor Hamish Kilburn shares what he knows about Ace’s first foray on the Canadian hospitality scene…

Hotel Designs Ace Hotel Toronto modern guestroom

The opening of the 124-key Ace Hotel Toronto this June will mark the brand’s debut property in Canada. The modern hotel, which has been developed in partnership with Zinc Developments and Alterra Group and designed by Toronto-based design firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects in collaboration with Atelier Ace’s interior design team, will be housed in a new building in Toronto’s Garment District designed. “Our intention with Ace Hotel Toronto was to make a positive contribution to our city, a welcoming civic space where life happens and memories are made, and where both locals and their guests feel equally at home, Brigitte Shim from Shim-Sutcliffe Architects told Hotel Designs.

Guestroom inside Ace Hotel Toronto with wooden interiors and modern design scheme

Image credit: Ace Hotel Group

The new hotel also features dining from critically acclaimed chef Patrick Kriss, who helms the signature restaurant, Alder, and a yet-to-be-named rooftop bar and lounge debuting later this summer.

Ace Hotel Toronto is adjacent to Queen West, Chinatown, and the Downtown business core, blocks from famed music venues Horseshoe Tavern and Velvet Underground, from the Art Gallery of Ontario and TIFF Bell Lightbox — Toronto International Film Festival’s HQ, and from the Bentway, the city’s artistic, cultural, and recreational public space. The hotel reflects the city’s past through a prismatic and future-facing vantage — preserving its layered legacies and adding texture with considered design and feeling. Intentionally crafted as a civic space, the hotel stands both in homage to and in dialogue with the neighbourhood it inhabits.

“We’ve long admired Toronto, a free-thinking city and international cultural capital, and we are thrilled to open our first Canadian home here,” Brad Wilson, CEO, Ace Hotel Group said. “Ace Toronto is housed in a brand-new building inspired, both in design and ethos, by the electricity and independence of this remarkable place. Along with our brilliant collaborators, including Shim-Sutcliffe and Chef Patrick Kriss, we have created a site that reflects the city’s legacy as a global meeting ground and aims to actively share in its future. We look forward to opening our doors and welcoming everyone — locals and visitors alike.”

Entering Ace Hotel Toronto, guests will be greeted by a suspended lobby overlooking St. Andrew’s Playground Park — site of the city’s first patch of green devoted to children’s play. The hotel’s public spaces are defined by an honest and refined material palette of concrete, clay, copper and wood that is echoed throughout the hotel’s public spaces as well as the guest rooms. Site-specific furnishings and lighting were custom-designed by Atelier Ace and Shim-Sutcliffe Architects to bring tangible comfort to the building’s design, and playfully intermix with vintage furniture sourced locally in Toronto. Original artworks by primarily Torontonian artists will offer reflection and joy across the hotel.

The guestrooms, conceived as urban cabins to offer respite from the city, feature deep-set window benches that invite conversation and closeness, and grant sitters bird’s-eye views of the park below.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s top culinary talents, Chef Patrick Kriss holds the distinction of being awarded the title of “Outstanding Chef” by Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants consecutively from 2017-2020. Relaxed and inviting, Alder aims to be an all-day hangout for Toronto. “For Alder’s menu, we’ve been inspired by the use of earthen and tactile materials in the design of Ace Hotel Toronto,” explained Kriss. “In the same way, our offerings will be direct and elemental. Drawing on elements from the wood-fired grill, we envision a little more olive oil than butter; lightly-treated seasonal vegetables; a selection of crudos, handmade pastas, and charcoal- grilled seafood and meats.”

The restaurant’s keystone is its wood-fired hearth and grill, which offer the simple yet effective preparation methods of open flame and smoke to gently transform seasonal ingredients selected at their peak.

Ace Hotel Toronto will take the Ace into a new territory. The lifestyle hospitality brand also has properties in Seattle, Portland, New York, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Chicago, Kyoto and Brooklyn. Following high anticipation, Ace Hotel Sydney is due to open next.

Main image credit: Ace Hotel Group

Hamish Kilburn / 26.01.2022

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