The W Toronto has emerged in the city’s Yorkville neighborhood with a design led by Sid Lee Architecture. The property boasts an ethos reflective of the city’s heritage and contemporary culture. Interiors were stylishly imagined as a sprawl of mises en scène, with a series of neighborhoods bonded with a brutalist neutrality and accentuated with notes of vibrancy.
“Connection to the community being an important part of W’s DNA, it was vital to connect the hotel to its context, but the original closed-off layout of the building represented an integration challenge,” says Sid Lee architect and senior partner Martin Leblanc. “Our team relied on a seamless connection between the interior and the exterior to turn the hotel into a connectivity hub.”
A café by day and a cocktail bar by night, PUBLIC SCHOOL anchors the ground floor. Activity is oriented around a circular bar clad with notched black marble panels inspired by the nearby designer stores along Bloor Street. Murals by local artist Alan Ganev enliven the atmosphere with street art, reinforcing the legacy of Toronto’s former Graffiti Alley.
The Living Room occupies a glass cube on the second floor, outfitted with suspended grids, velvet curtains, and lighting fashioned to resemble movie projectors that cast the space akin to a backstage area. A series of large tubes also span the second level to provide intimate enclaves in addition to a conversation pit that includes a fireplace. The SKYLIGHT Rooftop Bar and Restaurant rounds out the public spaces, lined with mashrabiya-style perforated screens, hanging plants, colorful ceramics, and warm tones that establish an atmosphere evocative of an inviting riad.
Nearly all of W Toronto’s 254 guestrooms overlook greenery that ensconces the Living Room’s glass cube and also enjoy views of a horizontal rooftop mural by Kirsten McCrea. Beds are positioned before windows and adorned with warm drapery, pendant lights, and a deep blue frame. Vanity mirrors and clothing racks were also installed to channel the aesthetic of a movie set. The brand’s signature Extreme WOW suite further amplifies this motif with rows of light bulbs, reminiscent of a marquee lights, stretched across the ceiling.
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