It was important to the owners of Andaz Ottawa Byward Market that the new hotel be welcoming and authentic for domestic tourists as well as visitors from farther away. Toronto-based Mason Studio was tasked with upholding the Hyatt brand’s modern sensibility while also showcasing the best that Canada has to offer in terms of design, art, and local talent—and to do it in a way that wasn’t overt or kitschy.
“Our aim was to create a design that didn’t just look like Canada—because Canada doesn’t really look like anything, we’re so diverse—but that really defines Canadian design and represents our capital city,” says Ashley Rumsey, a partner with Mason Studio. “And we wanted to showcase up-and-coming design talent and craftspeople.”
Andaz Ottawa is one of the first full hotel designs for the young company. “We really got to look at the design from the perspective of improving service and guest experience,” Rumsey explains.
Nearly every detail of the design honors Canada—each floor, for instance, represents one of the country’s provinces or territories through works curated through a partnership with the Canada Council Art Bank. The team also worked with Ottawa-based artist Laura Langford on the seating in the public areas and ground-floor restaurant, feast + revel. Even the use of copper finishes throughout is a nostalgic nod to the recent “loss” of the Canadian penny, which was taken out of circulation around the time the hotel was being designed. Take the rooftop Copper Spirits and Sights bar, where more copper accents mimic the tops of the Parliament Buildings, visible in the bar’s spectacular view. “There is a lot of intention behind the selection of materials and furniture,” says Munsey. “We didn’t want anything to be just about what it looks like, but to have a story behind it as well.”
Guestrooms are clean and minimal with neutral tones and modern lighting from, evoking a fresh youthfulness that’s a hospitality first for the city. And while every element is a loving tribute to the locale, it’s the subtlety of the design that’s perhaps the most authentically Canadian: The host stand for feast + revel is an extrusion in the shape of Lake Erie, for example, and even the “intimate trellis” design at the entrance is an abstraction of crop patterns found in farms on the outskirts of the city.
