Client

Overview

Every Ace Hotel Toronto privileges the local over the global . A visit to any Ace Hotel around the world enabling its guests to connect to the local music scene and vibrant art community in each of its locales. Visitors enter the lobby facing southward, catching a glimpse of Horizon Line, a three-story site-specific art installation designed by A. Howard Sutcliffe and assembled by local fabricators Two Degrees North.

Toronto is located on the north shore of Lake Ontario which is part of the Great Lakes system of large interconnected freshwater lakes. Horizon Line, a puzzle of weathered, stained and untreated plywood pieces, mimics the sparkling waters of Lake Ontario and offers a moment of orientation, situating the viewer on the northern shore of one of the Great Lakes which served as Toronto’s point of entry for centuries.

Goals

The Ace Hotel Toronto, featuring 14 above-ground stories which showcases a sweeping main entrance – tucked on Camden Street, a quiet side road – with detailing in brick, concrete, copper and wood. Along Brant Street, oversized glass windows spark curiosity, viewing a three-story artwork inside the hotel. Onlookers from the street view the integrated artwork and adjacent intricate spaces filled with abundant natural daylight.

Process

Artist A. Howard Sutcliffe exposed plywood to the natural elements for several seasons which provided the weathered wood used in Horizon Line. He collaborated with Simon Cooper from Two Degrees North, local fabricators to install this three-story integrated art piece. Full size mock-ups of portions of Horizon Line were prepared by Two Degrees North with direction from A. Howard Sutcliffe. These studies enabled the artist and fabricators to fine tune the elements and ensure this collaborative art piece to connects you to the local site and situation on the north shore of Lake Ontario, Canada.