Montreal’s Boxotel flexible and functional
Built-in, pull-out furniture lets guests transform room for a variety of needs
Boxotel, Montreal’s newest lodging establishment, is an almostfront-row seat to the action at the Quartier des spectacles.
Opened in December, Boxotel is a boutique hotel with 20 guest studios, brilliantly conceived to be functional and homey, and perfectly situated for the entertainment industry. It’s also a distinctive addition to the hospitality scene, just in time for Montreal’s 375th anniversary.
With exposed pipes in the ceilings and a structure of concrete, glass and polished plywood, Boxotel is industrial and cool. Heated floors, cheerful art and a friendly vibe add warmth.
Each unit is a fully equipped, compact apartment with a kitchen and modular furniture that multi-tasks.
“It is meant to be practical,” said Boxotel developer and owner Marie-Jeanne Rivard. “Travellers are busy and rushed, so we want to offer homestyle conveniences at accessible prices.” Almost like home: Here is how the studios work.
The Murphy bed folds down at night and back up into the wall during the day. When you need a living room instead of a bedroom, you can pull out a sofa. If you unhinge the table to different sizes, you have a work desk, an eating space or a miniboardroom. Are you expecting a guest for an intimate dinner? You can take down a wooden artwork hanging on the wall and bend it into an extra chair.
Boxotel is flexible and modern — a bit like a do-it-yourself getaway, starting with a self-serve check-in at a kiosk in the lobby, if you want to skip the front desk.
Mingling is key to hotel life, so Boxotel incorporates Café Nomade on the main floor for light bites, beer or wine, and a summertime rooftop terrasse with a communal kitchen.
For rejuvenation and relaxation, guests can use the small fitness room (two machines and yoga gear) and the tiny spa, which consists of a steam bath and sauna. There is an outdoor heated exercise pool — not big enough for laps, but with a strong jet you can swim against.
Rivard expects to have a lot of guests, both spectators and artists, who visit Montreal for festivals and other performances.
Many will stay for days or weeks at a time, so the hotel incorporates handy moneysaving facilities, such as washerdryers in each studio.
If you are in a VIP frame of mind, the show-stopping accommodation is a two-storey studio with a private rooftop terrasse and a large space for parties. New style: The hotel is furnished mostly by Quebec creators. Christian Savard Ébéniste fashioned the inventive built-in, pullout furniture of polished plywood. The snuggly bedding and grey flannelette bathrobes are by Geneviève Lorange of Literie Bigarade.
The kitchens are fully equipped and ultra-modern, but with rustic earthenware plates that were handmade by potter Benoit Daîgle. And the Montreal cosmetics company Cocooning Love developed Boxotel’s allnatural
toiletries.
On the eco front, the structure has environmentally friendly operating systems and solar panels to heat water and melt snow on the roof. It’s also tech-centric, with push-button window shades and remote-controlled lighting that is activated by an app on your smartphone. Café Nomade: Like Boxotel, the counter café is uncomplicated, convenient and affordable, serving breakfast sandwiches, smoothies and cappuccino in the morning, as well as all-day veggie bowls and panini. There is wine and beer, so guests are all set. Cultural corner: Located on Ontario St. E. near St-Denis St. in the Quartier des spectacles, Boxotel is within blocks of Club Soda, Metropolis, Cinémathèque québécoise and Place des Arts.
But you can soak up culture without leaving Boxotel. It has its own art gallery, Galerie 175B, specializing in artists from Quebec and the rest of Canada. The inaugural exhibit is Étranges géométries, a mix of paintings, projections and sculpture, curated by Montrealer Lorraine Simms. The developer: Rivard, 34, has a master of science in neuropsychiatry from McGill. She is new to the hospitality business, but had been a construction contractor for the past 10 years.
She is well known in Montreal as the star of the business reality show Flip de fille, on which she bought rundown buildings and rebuilt and resold them, all in 90 days.
Now reality TV has turned into reality, with Rivard developing her first hotel, which was built from scratch.