The Sutton Place Hotel was initially a 33-storey hotel and apartment building located at 955 Bay Street in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. Designed by the architectural firm Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden and operating from 1967 to 2012, Sutton Place was one of Toronto's most luxurious hotels and was known for frequently hosting dignitaries and celebrities. It was operated by the Sutton Place Hotel Company (SP), which also manages hotel properties in Halifax, Revelstoke and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

( The Sutton Place).

History

Sutton Place Hotel (4927788059) (cropped)

The Sutton Place project was developed by Max Tanenbaum of York Steel and the lawyer David Dennis. The architectural firm Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden – the descendant of

Peter Dickinson Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL (16 December 1927 – 16 December 2015) was an English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories. Dickinson won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association ...

Associates – designed the building, which along with the hotel included luxury apartments on the upper floors. The top floor of the hotel, thirty-three stories high, held the restaurant "Stop 33" which featured a starlight ceiling and tall windows. Also included in the structure were two pools, a pub, a banquet hall and an office building. The lobby featured a mural painted by Shirley Tattersfield depicting Canada's history, a tribute to the country's

centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...

that year. At the time of its opening, Sutton Place was the tallest building in Toronto north of Queen Street. Three months after it opened, the stock promoter Myer Rush was seriously injured by a bomb planted in the bed of the 6th-floor room where he was staying. Myer had been due in court the next morning to face charges in an alleged $100 million stock fraud. During its time Sutton Place hosted numerous celebrities and was a major destination for actors during the annual

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. Notable guests included

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada The prime mini ...

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

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and

Ted Danson Edward Bridge "Ted" Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'', for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. He ...

. In 1967, the vibraphonist

Hagood Hardy Hugh Hagood Hardy, (February 26, 1937 – January 1, 1997) was a Canadian composer, pianist, and vibraphonist. He played mainly jazz and easy listening music. He is best known for the 1975 single, "The Homecoming" from his album of the same na ...

recorded the album ''Stop 33'' in the lounge of the same name, where his band had a residency.

Redevelopment

It was sold to a Hong Kong-based ownership group in 1993. It was purchased in the early 2010s by Lanterra Developments. The hotel officially closed on 15 June 2012, forty-five years after opening. All contents of the hotel were sold at auction in 2014. In 2013, the redevelopment plan faced some opposition from most of the tenants in the 161 rental units. In late 2015, the building was gutted, several stories were added, and work began on converting the existing frame into a new condominium tower called The Britt, completed in 2019, which contains 727 residential units, 78 of which are rental units.

References

*Michael McClelland and Graeme Stewart (eds), ''Concrete Toronto: A Guide to Concrete Architecture from the Fifties to the Seventies''. Toronto: Coach House, 2007. {{coord, 43.66479, N, 79.38697, W, display=title 1967 establishments in Ontario 2012 disestablishments in Ontario Defunct hotels in Canada