A Hotel for All Seasons

Four seasons is one of those all-too-few commercial brands with which Canadians have achieved global renown, alongside Massey-Ferguson, Ski-Doo, Seagram’s V.O. and the BlackBerry.

Stories of great, sustained success usually are unlikely. This one’s no different.

Isadore Sharp, protege of his father, Max, as a builder of Toronto houses and modest apartment blocks, falls into the inn keeping trade after putting up a surprisingly successful motel for a client in the 1ate 1950s. On the strength of an architecture major from Ryerson University, a twenty-something Sharp, convinced he can do as well at this burgeoning trade as others, ultimately creates the world’s biggest luxury hotel chain. Sharp builds a current 82 hotels and resorts in 34 countries, from Bora Bora to Washington DC and from Nevis to Prague, in the process inventing a new type of hotel facility and style of hotel management, and making the Four Seasons brand synonymous with luxury lodging...