Photos @ Jean-Sébastien Senécal

Photos @ David Boyer

LE BOULEVARDIER / HOTEL LE GERMAIN

Type: Restaurant / Bar / Hospitality / Hotel
Location: Montreal QC
Year: 2019
Size: 7,535 sqft / 700 m2

In collaboration with Germain Hotels, Atelier Zébulon Perron devised a symbiotic space, on two separate levels, including a ground floor bar/lounge, a first-floor restaurant, and an alluring staircase to connect the two. Inspired by the building’s original brutalist architecture, the design integrates exposed concrete and other raw materials to serve as a canvas for a contrasting purity of forms and lines. Greeted by a glass wine cellar on the way up, patrons ascend into a luxurious, yet non-ostentatious space illuminated by an abundance of natural light.

Exposed concrete beams rise above the contemporary décor, which mirrors the ground level’s abundant use of dark woods and marble countertops. While a vast windowed bay expands the horizons, a strategic gallery of mirrors adorning the ceiling and side walls of the restaurant’s interior further provides the illusion of expanding the space well beyond its actual dimensions.

Great attention was placed on customized lighting schemes, in order to capture the essence of the spaces through controlled quality, temperature, and modulation. A core element of the planning process was to create a physical and emotional connection between the two floors. In order to foster intrigue, the hotel’s centrally-located staircase was positioned closer to the front desk, inviting patrons to explore beyond the confines of the lobby. Rising through the ceiling, the new staircase is framed in a transparent wall of steel rods, tactically illuminated to make it as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional.

AWARDS

2020 Grands Prix du Design Gold Laureate