Architecture and design firms: Sid Lee Architecture, Montreal; Architecture49, Vancouver; and Design360, Los Angeles

The details: For the recently refreshed Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, which originally opened in 1958, Sid Lee Architecture worked closely with owner Ivanhoé Cambridge for a design that revisits the eras that defined the city and “played on patterns and geometry as a direct reference to the fashion industry,” says Martin Leblanc, senior partner at the local firm, which collaborated with Architecture49 on the 950-room hotel.

Creating each floor of the hotel was like a different chapter of a book, he notes. The lobby draws inspiration from “the ’60s office environment with its oversized columns and repetitive metal tile ceiling, while the third level is really about the business environment of the dotcom economy.” Rich finishes pair with sophisticated yet daring details, shown in the black and white zigzag patterned flooring and oval-shaped bar at Rosélys restaurant; the lobby’s sculptural white and black staircase; strings of lights artfully hanging above orange and cream seating at event space Agora; and disc-shaped light fixtures dangling from an ebony mirrored ceiling in the Nacarat bar.

Meanwhile, guestrooms, including the John Lennon and Yoko Ono suite (they hosted their famous bed-in at the hotel), continue the ’60s fashion theme thanks to the handiwork of Los Angeles-based Design360. “The building wanted to be a hallmark of the (then) new downtown, and we tried to do exactly that,” Leblanc says.