Giannone Petricone Associates rescues Ontario hotel from ruin
Toronto studio Giannone Petricone Associates has spent a decade restoring a dilapidated hotel in Ontario, linking the building’s past and present through regionally influenced design details.
Located in Picton, a town in Prince Edward County (PEC) that lies close to the shores of Lake Ontario, The Royal Hotel was in bad shape when the Sorbara family purchased it in 2013.
The new owners hired Giannone Petricone Associates (GPA) to save what they could of the existing building, which was first completed in 1879, and transform it into contemporary lodgings.
“Its central staircase was lined with a lush carpet of green moss, and early in the planning phase, the roof caved in,” said the hotel team.
“But the family vowed to restore the property and bring it back to life as a nexus for both locals and guests of PEC’s burgeoning food and wine region.”
The architects were able to salvage three of the original brick walls, and within them created a cafe, three bars, a fine-dining restaurant; and a spa, gym and sauna.
A landscaped terrace overlooks a fourth bar and a brick patio with lounge seating, while an outdoor swimming pool flanked by a row of cabana beds lies beyond.
A total of 33 guest rooms are available: 28 in the main three-storey hotel building, and a further five suites in a rebuilt stable named The Royal Annex.
For the interiors, GPA played on tropes of Victorian railway hotels, mixing formal elements of British tradition with PEC’s more laid-back rural sensibility.
“The Royal is designed to be a transporting experience while deeply rooted in the local context,” said GPA principal Pina Petricone. “The experience benefits from the charged contrast between ‘genteel’ and ‘real’ elements.”
In the lobby, the reception desk is wrapped in a floral pattern and a wooden shelving system forms a boutique displaying items for sale.
Tambour panelling lines the adjacent bar area, which flows into a lounge where softly undulated plasterwork frames a fireplace.
A variety of checkered and tartan patterns are found across hallway carpets, mosaic bathroom tiles and cross-stitched headboards. Ceiling rosettes throughout the spaces are designed to mimic mushrooms and water ripples.
“We wanted to have moments in the hotel that were a bit nonsensical,” Petricone said. “The Royal is about escapism, and our research into the hotel’s history demonstrated that it was always a pretty quirky place.”
Other recently opened hotels in Canada include the Ace Toronto, which boasts a suspended lobby and rooftop bar.
Last year, the 1 Hotel Toronto by Rockwell Group and The Drake Hotel Modern Wing by DesignAgency, also in the city, were longlisted in the Hotel and Short Stay Interiors category for the Dezeen Awards.
The photography is by Doublespace, unless stated otherwise. Main image is by Jeff McNeill.
image © 
the blackened, textural facade wraps the public park on three sides | image © designboom
The library’s design team aspired to establish a new civic and cultural hub on the northwest corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in Winter Park, Florida. The library was made to embody the values of the park’s namesake as a space for community empowerment. Seven years in the making, the project spans 50,000 square feet across a trio of canted pavilions.
Arches establish the form of the pavilions, where compound, convex exterior walls are made with a series of scalloping, frond-like patterns. The volumes of the library, events center, and porte cochère come very close to touching. Hoping to draw light deep into the new library, the team created the angled exterior walls that lean outward as they rise from the base.
For the precast façade, it was determined that concrete was the only cladding material that could achieve the quality and durability needed for the exterior walls. The texture, color, aggregates and concrete matrix were carefully selected for aesthetics, durability and low maintenance. The curved walls are realized with back-up framing made up of structural steel.
In turn, a series of sloping, arched curtainwalls in the enclosed buildings meet the curved, solid surfaces. The architects mirrored the concrete edge to create continuous seating along the curtain wall. Shallow foundations are used to support the building loads, while the elevated floor and roof are framed using structural steel beams and girders.
The site’s physical constraints required efficient use of space for the buildings, the belvedere and parking. The team worked with 
The library has become a place where the entire community can interact, learn and gather. Inside, open spaces are framed by four timber-lined cores that contain Winter Park’s historical and archival collection spaces, support zones, and private reading rooms. Designing with the community in mind, the event center was made with a flexible auditorium space and a rooftop terrace that offers views of the lakeside park setting.