Botanist Fairmont Pacific Rim, Vancouver
Words: Lauren Ho
O
ccupying a 48-storey James Cheng-designed
includes the design, but the entire concept development
tower along prime waterfront real estate in
and strategy. “It’s important to open a restaurant that
Downtown Vancouver, the Fairmont Pacific Rim
resonates with the market,” explains Stanghetta. “ So we
is, arguably, the slickest hotel in the city - not
corral the management team, we get consultants to look at
least for its heaving lobby that has become a local hotspot to
the positioning strategy and the narrative for the restaurant
see and be seen.
and then we develop the idea from there, bringing the right
It’s hardly a surprise though, considering its owner is Westbank, a local property development company, whose
The result, which now also includes an intimate champagne
projects – spanning residential, commercial, hospitality
bar and Vancouver’s first cocktail lab, takes its cues from
and public art – have played a significant role in defining
its location: fresh, clean and wholesome, with a good
Vancouver’s skyline. Known for its progressive approach
dose of Stanghetta’s strong modernist sensibility. “It’s a
towards creating a city for the people, its line-up of
reinvention of the Pacific Northwest,” he says. As such, the
upcoming ventures includes the permanent adoption of
bar is swathed in grey, monolithic terrazzo, reminiscent – as
Unzipped Wall, the installation designed by Danish architect
Stanghetta points out – of Vancouver’s rocky, mountainous
Bjarke Ingels for London’s Serpentine Pavilion last year; and
landscape. In contrast, the restaurant, inspired by the region’s
a new curvilinear building by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma,
lush tree-filled greenery, has a horticultural bent with lots
due to open in 2020.
of florals, in muted pastel hues and an abundance of live
Its latest pursuit targets the local dining scene, with
plants. “Wherever you are in Vancouver, the horizon provides
the re-launch of the Fairmont Pacific Rim’s restaurant.
a backdrop of mountainous rock and trees,” says Stanghetta.
Aiming to draw the public in with an accessible destination,
“There’s a trend for colour-blocking at the moment, so our
Westbank has wisely tasked the king of restaurant cool, Craig
version was to create something a little more nuanced and
Stanghetta and his design studio Ste. Marie for the job. The
transitional within each space and, on a grander scale, ‘block’
man behind some of Vancouver’s most fashionable dining
the actual areas by creating this distinct binary look.”
rooms, including Kissa Tanto - a sexy Japanese-Italian
060
people in as necessary.”
The concept extends to the food, which, like the interiors,
joint that has recently been crowned Best New Restaurant
is also fresh, clean and wholesome. “It was the design of
by the country’s definitive culinary guide, Canada’s 100
the space that got me interested,” says Mexico-born chef
Best - Stanghetta has, for his first hotel project, given
Hector Laguna. “When they approached me, they said
the space the full Ste. Marie treatment, which not only
they needed food to match the interiors. The look of the