Interior design is by Miguel Cancio Martins. The building is the old Bank of Canada building in Montreal, and uses the startlingly lit canopy featured in our previous article (to read this follow the link at the end of this piece) as its introduction to the streetscape. The electric blue of the canopy is echoed in the use of blue in the bedrooms, claimed to be ‘calming and serene with accents of electric blue’. Materials are ebony stained ash, stone, chrome and fur. The rooms also feature Starwoods famous bed with cotton sheets, goose down comforters and pillows. Furniture is oversized (‘community sized’ says ‘W’).

Public areas will, if other ‘W’ hotels are anything to go by, quickly achieve a local celebrity status and become the place to be seen (something that has been echoed in the new 91 bedroom Soho by Kit Kemp in London). The ‘W’ public space is characterised as a living room (conceptual echoes of Express by Holiday Inn’s Great Room – see the current Review for an example – although stylistically a different proposition of course). The Living Room also features deep and cosy furniture, against a massive smoke grey mirror and flanked by a glowing red welcome desk and concierge station. A grand staircase leads to the Plateau Bar and meeting rooms.

There is of course a Spa with five treatment rooms and a full fitness centre to service the 152 bedrooms (including 22 Urban, 6 Wow and 3 Extreme-Wow suites)

Taken with the other articels there are ten images of this hotel to enjoy - as striking as the previous 'W' hotels. They make an interesting comparison with the parallel but very English Firmdale hotels, the latest of which the Soho opened last month.