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AUGUST 2016 | 75 Holiday Inn Express & Suites Victoria – Colwood PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN YANYSHYN/VISIONS WEST/COURTESY LOVICK SCOTT ARCHITECTS Holiday Inn Express & Suites Victoria – Colwood by ROBIN BRUNET A decade or so ago, it seemed unlikely that the quiet Victoria suburb of Colwood would one day warrant an amenity as high profile as a Holiday Inn Express & Suites, let alone the first one in Canada to exhibit the brand's new Formula Blue design scheme. But suburbs have a habit of growing quickly, especially under the care of developers such as Metropolitan Capital Partners. Rising five storeys as part of Metropolitan's Westridge Landing mixed-use complex, the 80-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites Victoria – Colwood, which opened for business late last year, is notable for its large suite windows, elegant horizontal lines and exterior lighting that bathes portions of the facade in vertical blue slashes. Inside, the Formula Blue concept provides distinctly modern furniture (reminiscent of 1960s futuristic minimalism) and wide open public spaces so guests can immediately understand where everything is when they walk into the hotel. Framed paintings are notably absent, and details such as bed headboards that minimize noise transfer between rooms abound. The hotel is a perfect match for Westridge Landing, which is a bracing mix of street level commercial/retail with strong stonework elements, canopies and glazing, and upper level condo/rental apartment units capped by multiple rooflines. Metropolitan's long-time partner, P.J. Lovick Architect Ltd. (now Lovick Scott Architects), is responsible for the esthetic appeal and functionality of both Westridge and the new Holiday Inn. "Peter Lovick began work on Westridge in 2006 and ultimately provided us with five buildings," says Metropolitan's president, Len Wansbrough. Throughout this development process, the fifth building was simply referred to as "The Hotel." Wansbrough explains: "We designed it first and then went shopping for an appropriate brand, so that key visual elements such as ground level stonework, the upper-level segmented appearance of the suites, the horizontal lines and the roof caps would complement those of the other four buildings." Metropolitan selected Holiday Inn for the excellence of its limited service properties and negotiated an agreement with the brand in January of 2013. Interior design was undertaken, with Metropolitan adhering to the brand's guidelines but also having enough leeway to allow P.J. Lovick to include important details such as the large windows and nine-foot ceilings in the suites, plus 12-foot ceilings in public spaces, to impart a sense of space in what was a relatively small property. "Peter is very operationally minded, but also has a knack for making end users feel comfortable," says Wansbrough, adding that an artisan market was developed as an adjunct to the hotel, located on one side of the parking lot. Then, in November of 2014, fate led Wansbrough to attend a Holiday Inn owner's conference, where he learned about the new Formula Blue concept. He recalls, "There were only 15 Holiday Inns in the U.S. with this design and none in Canada, and it struck me that as good as our plans were, Formula Blue was truly the wave of the future; plus, it had important features such as the ability for each suite to accommodate up to eight Wi-Fi devices without degrading Wi-Fi capabilities in the adjoining suite. "It struck me that if I didn't do so now, I would probably adopt Formula Blue six or so years down the road. So I took a deep breath, chose to make it part of our construction scheme, and threw out $40,000 of interior design plans." By that point, Sargent Construction Ltd. had completed foundation work and was busy with the framing for what would become a five-storey concrete/wood complex. Apart from the inconvenience of starting over, Formula Blue posed other challenges. "We had hoped to source as many components as possible from within Canada, but because we were the first Canadian hotel to adopt the concept, virtually all our sourcing had to be done in the U.S. – at a time when the exchange rate was not in our favour," says Wansbrough. Also, the very same high standards that had attracted Metropolitan to Holiday Inn proved to be a logistics nightmare for the construction team to fulfill. "Understandably, the brand scrutinizes every last aspect of what we do," says Sargent Construction owner Lyall Sargent. "Essentially, we had to submit our plans to Holiday Inn, and they would be scrutinized by different departments in the Eastern U.S. – and innumerable notes would come back either approving or questioning decisions, rejecting others and asking for alternatives measures." While many aspects of this process were beneficial – for example, Holiday Inn required safety and fire ratings that went way beyond code – other aspects were frustrating. "The Holiday Inn exterior logo, which was made in Quebec, didn't exactly fit our exterior," recalls Sargent. "We had to move the bottom portion of the logo, which reads 'Express Suites,' two inches further below the 'Holiday Inn' portion, so that it wouldn't impede the through- wall flashing we had installed on every level for rainwater egress. "We were informed this contravened the trademark. Fortunately, we had a fantastic liaison for Holiday Inn, Darrell Eiseman, who resolved these kinds of disagreements and was great in sorting out misunderstandings that arose from an unfamiliarity with our building codes." Wansbrough adds, "We were not a prototypical hotel design, and Darrell gave us the time we needed and the approvals to allow us to move forward rapidly. The Holiday Inn standards gave us a great looking modern hotel." The completed Holiday Inn is perfectly integrated visually with the other Westridge buildings, and Wansbrough reports that the hotel became profitable after its first three months of operation. "We had figured 18 months, so this was a wonderful bonus," he says. "All in all, and considering how logistically demanding this project was, we're thrilled with the outcome. Westridge is a fabulous hub for Colwood, and we're eager to develop the community further." A LOCATION 318 Wale Road, Colwood, B.C. OWNER/DEVELOPER Metropolitan Capital Partners ARCHITECT Lovick Scott Architects CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Sargent Construction Ltd. GENERAL CONTRACTOR Westridge Lodging Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Trilogy Structural Engineering Ltd. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Avalon Mechanical Consultants Ltd. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT AES Engineering TOTAL SIZE 51,000 square feet TOTAL COST Undisclosed 9:58 AM

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