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It’s not easy to turn heads in downtown Vancouver’s business and financial district. The Burrard Street Corridor from Robson Street north to Burrard Inlet is dominated by a series of landmark buildings representing key architectural phases in the area’s 100-year evolution from residential neighbourhood to hive of world-wide trading activity. The masterpiece art deco Marine Building (completed 1930) draws knowing eyes at the north end of the corridor, as do the Gothic revival Christ Church Cathedral (1895) half-way to the south and the modernist classic Vancouver Public Library (1957) on the district’s southern flank. The city’s Grand Old Lady of landmarks - the chateau-style Hotel Vancouver (1939) - is also within the corridor, as are postmodern jewel Cathedral Place (1991), the splendid Georgian-revival Vancouver Club (1914) and two fine examples of international-style towers - the complementary Oceanic Plaza (1977) and Guinness Tower (1969).
So it follows that when Barry Hong, the president of Vancouver’s Spectra Group, first looked at his company’s 75-by-120-foot property in the midst of this noted architectural landscape, he had few hopes of matching his surroundings from a plot of land barely larger than two standard City of Vancouver residential building lots.
Wrong.
“What we wanted,” Hong is saying at the April 15 official opening of the just-completed project - Sheraton Suites Le Soleil, at 581 Hornby - “was to build the most intimate and luxurious boutique hotel in the world, on what must be one of the tightest building sites.”
He smiles: “We created a jewel - and we pushed the envelope.”
Le Soleil was designed by Burroughs Huggins Architects of Vancouver to recall the grand, chateau-style hotels of Old World Europe. It provides 6,657 square metres of floor space on 14 storeys, including an overheight lobby, adjoining restaurant and mezzanine, 11 storeys of guest suites and a penthouse level. A steel chateau-style roof caps the building, and there are four floors of parking underneath.
Constructed of granite, brick, glass and concrete, the hotel is a classic tower on a podium, tapering from its tiny ground-floor footprint to vanishing point by stepping back at the third and 12th floors, then climbing a traditional hipped chateau roof. Glass curtain walls at each corner from floors three to 12 help balance shape and mass and foster a perception of even greater height, as do Le Soleil’s deeply recessed and vertically proportioned windows.
At street level, the face of the building features a 25-foot-high entry portal to the grand lobby, tall vertically-proportioned Georgian windows in the best ‘Grand Hotel’ style, and French doors opening onto Hornby Street from the Oritalia, a separately-managed restaurant supplying food services to hotel guests and the public. Oritalia features a fusion of Italian and Asian styles, designed by noted San Francisco restaurant consultant Bob Puccini, a partner in the venture.
That’s now. Three years ago, when Burroughs Huggins principal Michael Huggins first embraced the $12.5 million project, Le Soleil challenged more assumptions than it answered. The key to success was overcoming space limitations to create a sense of Old World comfort and style while providing enough guest suites to satisfy financing requirements.
“Everything about the design of Le Soleil came back to the fact the site is very, very tight,” Huggins says, noting there was consequent - and extreme - pressure to maximize all available space. The solution was a different structural assembly to optimize floor layouts in each of three main sections - underground parking, lobby and upper floors. Designed by structural consultant Reid Jones Christofferson, the assembly included three systems of columns and two transfer points, changing at the lobby level and at the third floor.
Other space-saving efforts included contributions by MCW Consultants to house mechanical systems under the chateau roof, and by A. Nemetz and Associates to ensure effective placement of electrical equipment.
As well, Huggins adopted a mini-suite style for about 60 per cent of the rooms, featuring cozy living area, elegant bathroom and ample bedroom in a space-saving arrangement made larger by ample use of glass and mirrors. All interiors are done in French Empire style, with high-quality decor, finishes and materials - plus original art and furniture commissioned by Le Soleil.
“The guests expect a little more elegance in a boutique hotel,” notes interior design consultant Louis de Araujo, who also devoted a good portion of his furnishings budget to exquisite lobby-level features like solid maple wainscoting, ceilings rag-rolled in stunning gold paint, a custom-designed fireplace for the rear visiting area, plus floor-to-ceiling marble walls in the bathrooms.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind interior,” agrees general contractor Art Van Maren, whose project team included an assistant superintendent dedicated wholly to quality control for hotel finishes, along with senior and assistant superintendents to supervise building the building’s exterior envelope.
“Everyone involved in the project contributed to the success of Le Soleil,” Hong says. “Now that it’s finished, we expect a lot of architects and designers from around the world to visit and see how we did it.”
‹ Award Magazine, March 1999
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