Francis Rattenbury's 1908 commission for the Canadian Pacific Railway produced one of the most recognisable silhouettes in North American hospitality — a Châteauesque pile of warm brick and steep copper-clad gables that anchors Victoria's Inner Harbour with the conviction of a building that was always meant to define its city. The Fairmont Empress has grown considerably since that opening, with wings added through 1910 and 1929 bringing the total to 464 rooms across six floors, the whole mass sitting on a foundation of concrete poured over what was once a tidal mudflat — a feat of Edwardian engineering that required thousands of wooden piles driven into the harbour bed. A CAD$60 million renovation completed in 2017 by Toronto-based interior design firm Arcadis refreshed the property without loosening its grip on ceremony. The guest rooms now carry a palette of warm grey and deep aubergine, Murano-style bronze chandeliers catching the gold trim on dark-stained platform beds, while watercolour rose prints nod to Victoria's reputation as a garden city. The Lobby Lounge — where afternoon tea has been served since 1908 — retains its Corinthian columns and elaborate plasterwork ceiling, Thonet-style bentwood chairs and curved velvet sofas arranged beneath drum pendant lights in a room that earns its ritual without any sense of museum-piece stiffness. The pool pavilion takes a sharper turn, exposed steel trusses and travertine-clad walls framing a mountain mosaic that grounds the space in the Pacific Northwest landscape just outside the windows.

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