The Thompson Hotel is open at Freed's new 550 Wellington West condominium complex. The chic 102-guestroom hotel shares some amenities with the 336 condo units in the modernist architectsAlliance-designed building. The hotel's lobby though, is not one of them. Separate from the condominium lobby on parallel Stewart Street, the hotel lobby, designed by New York-based Studio Gaia, morphs from a front desk into a lounge area and bar.

Front desk: 

Front Desk, Image by yyzer

Reflected elevator, flanked by giant end-table lamp: 

Elevator, Image by yyzer

Elevator, Image by yyzer

Elevator, Image by yyzer

The lobby lounge, with funky wall-mounted cityscape by renowned Spanish artist Javier Mariscal(most of which is painted on the wall, while some extends from it), and a bar that only opens at 5 PM, for now, anyway: 

Lobby Lounge, Image yyzer

Lobby Lounge, Image yyzer

Decorative palette is mostly bold black and dark browns with contrasting white and red accents: 

Lobby lounge, Image by yzzer

Outside, the diagonally supported space frame which will become an extension of the food-and-drink services, makes for interesting views: 

Frame to be Extension of Food services, Image by yzzer

This photo by UrbanToronto member Current shows the frame in the hotel and condo complex's courtyard location along Wellington Street. 

Courtyard, Image by Current

The courtyard landscaping and frame are by local practice gh3. Renders of the frame at their website indicate it will have some sort of weatherproof cladding when complete.