in Architectural Digest
As the 49th parallel opens up to nonessential travel, the art of vacationing in Canada has taken on a whole new meaning. From coast to coast, and from urban luxury to wilderness retreats, art and design are front and center. A host of new hotels boast permanent and rotating collections of top Canadian and international artists and have even become exhibition spaces in their own right.
"Studio Munge’s 2017 Bisha Hotel still takes the cake for both sumptuous style and cutting-edge art."
In Toronto, Studio Munge’s 2017 Bisha Hotel still takes the cake for both sumptuous style and cutting-edge art. Designed as a maximalist “temple to the senses” with seductive velvet walls and lush golds and ebonies, the hotel also boasts an intoxicating cocktail of artwork. A metallic fuchsia Jeff Koons sculpture wows, scarves from a Damien Hirst x Alexander McQueen collaboration are framed in the bar, and Interview magazine cover prints grace hotel room walls. Art is infused into everything here: from the Brandon Olsen chocolates decorated with a Jackson Pollock–style splatter to rooms, like the Yves, the Andy, and the Stella, named after creative souls, and the seventh-floor suites co-designed with Lenny Kravitz. Meanwhile, Studio Munge’s latest project the Park Hyatt in Yorkville, which opened last month, channels old school elegance with sophistication and modernist charm.
Also upcoming is the new Muir Hotel, scheduled to open in December in Halifax’s historic harbor but taking bookings now, designed by Brian MacKay-Lyons of MLS Architects in the shape of a ship’s bow. Each of its 109 rooms was imagined by Studio Munge in an Atlantic rustic meets modernist vein—dubbed “wharf vernacular”—featuring bespoke, made-in-Canada furniture and original Nova Scotian art.
Read the full article by Hadani Ditmars in Architectural Digest