The 123-room Ace Hotel has opened in Toronto, designed by acclaimed Canadian practice Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, recipients of the 2021 RAIC Gold Medal. Located in the city’s Garment District, the hotel adopts what the team calls a “robust, solid architecture” with a material palette including brick, concrete, steel, and oak.

The 14-story building’s exterior is clad in red brick — a “statement of resistance against recent thin and glassy developments in the area,” according to the team The main entrance is marked by a sweeping undercroft detailed in brick, concrete, copper, and wood, while oversized glass windows bring views and natural light into the interior.

Inside, the lobby features a series of poured-in-place, steel-edged concrete structural arches. Each frame terminates with an oversized industrial steel “knuckle” that transfers the load of the floors above from the arches to the foundations. Up close, the arches retain a textural timber grain created by the wood formwork used to pour the arches. From this structure, slender steel rods are hung to support the floating red oak-lined spaces that form the lobby.

“Intended to feel as if it were slipped into an existing structure, blurring the sensation of time, the lobby’s suspension creates the sensation of levity within the massive, muscular space,” the team says. “The lobby flooring is end grain Douglas fir, a nod to industrial fabrication that is echoed above in the guest suites’ entrance vestibule flooring.”

Perhaps the most striking space within the entrance area is the Lobby Bar. Nestled between the concrete arches, the bar’s floorplate is suspended off the ground and hung from the arches by steel rods; a condition the team likens to a “wooden tray.” The bar is furnished in white glazed brick, complimented by red oak, bespoke opaque plexiglass lighting by Shim-Sutcliffe, and vintage furniture.

The hotel’s 123 guest rooms have been designed to evoke the “comforting pleasures of a wilderness cabin retreat” using local materials such as canvas, wood benches, Douglas fir paneling and flooring, and custom, vintage furnishings. The threshold between the wilderness and the city is broken by the rooms’ window benches. Designed by Atelier Ace and Shim-Sutcliffe, the window seats create nook-like spaces typical of wilderness cabins but with views towards busy urban and green spaces.

Other spaces within the hotel include Alder, a restaurant on the ground floor whose “half-buried” location under the lobby creates a collection of triple-height and single-height spaces. Dining areas are inserted between the grounding of the hotel’s dominant concrete arches, contrasted by a warm material palette of brick, copper, and black wood.

Elsewhere, light, open, expansive event spaces on the upper levels form a counterpoint to the low-lit, intimate spaces on the ground floor. Such event spaces include FORM, a 1,500-square-foot private space perched above the lobby, and FLOW, a 500-square-foot gathering space featuring a Japanese garden-inspired outdoor terrace.

The scheme is topped by a rooftop bar featuring indoor and outdoor lounges anchored by two massive brick fireplaces. Designed by Atelier Ace, the bar prioritizes warm interior design elements, including earthly shades of mossy green and terracotta, while the outdoor deck faces westwards to capture views of Toronto’s skyline.

"The architectural magnificence of Shim-Sutcliffe Architects’ work has created a bona fide wonder," remarked ACE Hotel Group CEO Brad Wilson on the hotel’s opening. "They have built an inherently civic space that respects the neighborhood’s storied past while nurturing its future."