COVER: Hotel-condo dwelling an experiment in blending culturesand income-brackets
Jeani Read
Province
L’Hermitage en Ville in downtown Vancouver has condos, a boutique hotel and street-level retail space.. JON MURRAY — THE PROVINCE
CREDIT: Jon Murray, The Province
Sleek and sexy: Cooking will never be the same in a L’Hermitage kitchen
CREDIT: Jon Murray, The Province
The building shows sleek, stylish designs from the outside and in (above left and right). L’Hermitage kicks up design a few notches with built-in space savers (at right). Bathroom sink (above right) in stunning stainless makes hand-washing an event.
To say L’Hermitage en Ville is simply 204 condos in downtown Vancouver, the way we just have in the above box, doesn’t quite get the measure of this ambitious project
Yes, it is 204 condos, and you could almost say it was creating a new city centre right at the centre of the city, with the Robson and Richards tower rising up smack across the street, the library right on the scene and the Centre for the Performing Arts squished in there as well. But it’s more than that. L’Hermitage is designed to have an exclusive boutique hotel within its structure. The hotel occupies two floors of the condo building, and hotel and condo share an entrance and many of the amenities, including a health club with exercise room and whirlpool spa, library and fireside seating area, and a strolling park and grounds on the fourth-floor roof.
The street level is planned for lots of retail — one prospective client is IGA ,which would really pep up the produce competition and increase the easy-living quotient. One look at the doll-house model makes you want to anticipate a brand new stand-alone Ralph Lauren boutique among the rest of the shops, although that could just be wishful thinking.
Finally, L’Hermitage includes a social experiment — a section of new subsidized housing incorporated into the whole as part of a contract with the city. The developers hope this is a model that will be followed by others, ensuring that the downtown core continues to represent a broad mix not only of cultures, but income-brackets.
If so, from soup to society, this package is so tight and multipurpose as an urban concept it squeaks, right down to the fact that the tone-setting Armani Casa decor items (although likely too big for most of the units) will be available through Inform Interiors, which is using the presentation centre as a showroom.
This upscale, haughty, minimalist stuff will grace the hotel/condo lobby and other common areas. The other features, building design and atmospherics in the presentation centre are also pretty impressive. It’s all about the details, as city life really demands a quiet, luxurious retreat far (up, in this case) from the madding crowd.
Here L’Hermitage really rocks, with some of the coolest detailing we’ve seen in a while. The polished manufactured-stone counter in the display kitchen was a clean relief from the busy look of granite, making the whole kitchen into a kind of stainless-steel-coloured zone that oddly doesn’t look sterile but like a perfectly plausible part of condo life.
The floor-to-ceiling pantry makes the most of minimal space and certainly stores enough for an urban dweller’s culinary repertoire — we’re thinking Friday night pizzas or fancy very late Sunday brunch. Even so, the kitchen sticks to the centre-of-the-world concept of today’s open floor plans. If the kitchen is the new living room, this one (Eggersmann, Bosch, SubZero) is spectacular,with a tight but sufficient work space for serious chefs. No room on the counters for canisters or the butcher block that stores your knives? No worries. Opt for the upgrade drawer with spice jars and canisters built in, or the one for the Henckels.
The bathrooms, too, are a treat — spa-like touches such as gorgeous faucetry, under-mounted oval sinks, deep soaker tubs and frameless glass shower stalls are all set in a calming sea of limestone counters and tiles. New looks? You bet. New concept? Yup. Just enjoy your continental breakfast from the hotel (another available perk) and feel smug.
QUICK FACTS
WHAT: L’Hermitage en Ville is 204 condominiums in downtown Vancouver.
WHERE: Richards at Robson streets.
DEVELOPED BY: Millennium Robson Properties.
SIZES: One-bedroom to three-bedroom condominiums, 624 sq. ft. – 2,091 sq.ft.
PRICES: $362,000 – $1,660,000.
OPEN: Noon to 6 p.m. daily, except Fridays, 688 Richards St., 604-605-1118.
© The Vancouver Province 2005
