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Hotel Style: The Listel Hotel, Vancouver
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A few easy pieces will give your home an "art-full" look.
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By Yuki Hayashi
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The Hotel
If you're heading to Vancouver and looking to go one step beyond "boutique," consider The Listel Hotel, known as Canada's most "art-full" hotel. With over $2 million worth of original artwork decorating the common areas, rooms and suites at any one time, it's the perfect pad for art lovers. (And yes, you can buy anything you fall in love with - up to 20 pieces per year are sold, says Lise Magee, director of public relations for the hotel.)
The artsy vibe doesn't start and end with the canvases and sculpture, though. Enjoy live jazz at O'Doul's, the onsite restaurant, and get a feel for the city by reading the short fiction in Vancouver Stories, an anthology featuring writers as esteemed as Alice Munro, Ethel Wilson, Malcolm Lowry, Douglas Coupland and more. (The hotel commissioned the collection.)
Located on trendy Robson Street, the 129-room Listel is surrounded by restaurants and just a short walk away from great shopping as well as beautiful Stanley Park.
Soon-to-be-installed green power sources like solar panels and a heat-recovery system will add to the hotel's appeal.
The Style
Adding to the independently owned hotel's artsy ambiance, there's no one set style for the guest rooms and suites. The Gallery suites feature a relaxed traditional style (with Regency wallpaper, crown mouldings), while Museum suites feature classic BC interiors with rustic cedar and hemlock with traditional First Nations carving techniques and ironwork (plus First Nations artwork), in a contemporary-rustic vein. The smaller guest rooms have a traditional-transitional feel. All feature fine art.
"It's amazing what a difference having original and limited-edition artwork in our guest rooms has made for our guests," says Magee. "The rooms somehow became more residential and comfortable - while at the same time becoming more sophisticated and interesting."
The Inspiration
A love of the arts is what drives this hotel property. Besides the actual décor influence provided by the hotel's partnership with the Buschlen Mowat Galleries and the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology (these partnerships are what bring the art into the rooms), the cultural connection fuels its identity.
"For us, the arts was the place we looked to for innovation and inspiration," says Magee. "We quickly figured out that not only could we feature the arts, we could develop incredible symbiotic relationships with the amazing cultural community of Vancouver." Besides corporate sponsorship of the Vancouver arts community, the Listel hosts cultural getaways such as creative writing retreats and the "Books, Bed & Breakfast" and Jazz Series packages.
"[Guests] come here wanting to experience the real Vancouver," says Magee. If for you that's a culturally astute, eco-friendly, hipster haven, well: this is the hotel for you.
Click here to see how to get the look!
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