“Toronto high-rises are thin,” observes architect Brigitte Shim from the rooftop terrace of the new Ace Hotel Toronto. She refers not only to their literal proportions—tall, narrow, and often clad in fragile steel and glass—but also to a conceptual thinness. Many of the city’s dominant condo towers aspire only to functional efficiency, their modest ambitions mirrored in their form. When Shim and her husband, Howard Sutcliffe, founding principals of Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, were commissioned to design the 14-storey Ace Hotel Toronto in a dense downtown environment, they embraced an aesthetic of urban chunkiness, evoking an older era of regional architecture while asserting the building’s presence in the contemporary streetscape. One of the first Ace Hotels constructed from the ground up rather than retrofitted from an existing structure, the building seamlessly integrates into Toronto’s heritage fabric. Its ruddy precast brick cladding references the classic red brick of the city’s historic warehouses in the Garment District, providing a sense of permanence and material authenticity. The hotel’s triple-height lobby features a boldly suspended bar, hung from steel rods—a sculptural centerpiece that exemplifies Shim-Sutcliffe’s meticulous attention to detail and playful interaction with space. Outside, a swooping, calligraphic Douglas fir canopy marks the stage-like entrance, balancing assertiveness with contextual sensitivity. In every detail, the Ace Hotel Toronto reconciles boldness with subtlety, asserting its presence on the streetscape while respecting its surrounding heritage and urban context.