The hotel faces St. Andrew?s Park; its west façade is marked by deep, purple-red brick piers that frame vertical slots of windows. The deep set bays give the building a powerful presence and sense of solidity. Photo by doublespace photography
PROJECT Ace Hotel, Toronto, Ontario
ARCHITECT Shim-Sutcliffe Architects
TEXT Bill Curran
PHOTOS Scott Norsworthy, unless otherwise noted
Hotels matter because, as architect Robert Stern once put it, they ?constitute a permanent, habitable dreamworld, which we can escape into and depart at will?a dreamworld we can share with others.? Toronto?s latest addition to the typology?the Ace Hotel, by Shim-Sutcliffe Architects?is the kind of dreamy place that architects love to create and spend time in. Facing St. Andrew?s Park, an island of green in a growing sea of downtown offices and condos, it?s also a real-life manifesto that, in Brigitte Shim?s words, is ?a statement of resistance against the thin and glassy.? It is a magnificent piece of architecture in its own right, but also a contextual fabric building that respects its neighbourhood?s scale and material history. It raises the bar for private development in its immediate context and throughout downtown Toronto. 
The duo of Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe and their team are about the best among us at creating architecture founded in a sincere reverence for craft and material research. Their deep, thoughtful design consideration often seems freed from the frets of normal time and b...