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AZ Awards 2022 Finalist: Drake Hotel Modern Wing by Diamond Schmitt

When Toronto’s Drake Hotel first opened in 2004, it brought a new kind of luxury to the city. The Drake felt eclectic and funky, better suited to indie-rock shows than staid corporate events. Diamond Schmitt has now transformed two adjacent lots into a second wing of the hotel, adding 32 new rooms. The facade is clad in elongated bricks and punctuated with irregular openings, and patterns in the masonry reference the windows and lintels of the Victorian buildings that once characterized the streetscape — whimsical accents befitting an institution that has always defied convention. Capping it off is the rooftop suite: Situated inside a volume resembling a shipping container, it cantilevers heroically over the hotel’s famed Sky Yard rooftop bar.

AZ Awards 2022 Finalist: Drake Hotel Modern Wing by Diamond Schmitt

Team Donald Schmitt and Marcin Sztaba (Diamond Schmitt), Jeff Stober (Drake Hotel Properties), John Tong (+tongtong) and Anwar Mekhayech (DesignAgency) with Steve Bondar, Debi Brennen, Karel Brozik, Matt Breton-Honeyman, Christina Chan, Jeong Choe, Mehdi Ghiyaei, Naiji Jiao, Waleed Khan, Martin Kristensen, Justin Loucks, Benjamin Mitchell, Jessica Sadler and Mike Taylor (Diamond Schmitt); John Granger and Joyce Lo (Drake Hotel Properties); Michael Hopkins (Blackwell); Shawn Richards and Ron Hing (BK Consulting); Nicholas Sylvestre-Williams (Aercoustics Engineering); Eriks Kalvins (Alexander Budrevics Landscape Architects); Lyle Scott (Footprint)

Drake Hotel Modern Wing

Diamond Schmitt transformed the lots adjacent to the original Drake Hotel into a second wing for the hotel, adding 32 new rooms.

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