Chronicle - Spring 2007 by Allied Properties REIT

SPRING 2007

CURIOUS about those ACLC banners?

3 City’s Largest Arts Fest Launches in June

6 Allied REIT buys Montreal’s Technology Park

COVER: Using devices hidden under his suit, Philippe Ramette stages gravity-defying situations photographed by Marc Domage. More from this series on display at the St. Patrick Subway Station.

4 IMAGE MAKING CONTACT 2007 Puts the Focus on Constructed Images

Philippe Ramette’s Photographic Metaphor, 2003, © Marc Domage, courtesy Galerie Xippas

Liberty Village • King West • King West Central • Entertainment District • St. Lawrence Market Area • Queen Richmond East • College St.

Strategic Curiosity King West ad firm has a long history of asking the right questions when it comes to creative solutions KING WEST CENTRAL / – If you’re curious about the ‘CURIOUS’ banners on King Street West, it’s perhaps time to familiarize yourself with ACLC, one of the latest advertising agencies to settle in King West Central in the last year. Known for its retail branding work with names such as Buckley’s (tastes awful but it works), Harvey’s (makes your hamburger a beautiful thing), and Hershey (Oh Hungry? Oh Henry.), ACLC is the latest incarnation of a firm started in 1967, which later came to be Ambrose Carr Linton Carroll. In the spring of 2005, the agency rebranded itself ACLC and later that the same year moved its headquarters from Leaside to space formerly occupied by The Body Shop Canada on 469 King Street West’s main floor.

Downtown West Migration “In the last 10 years, downtown west has really overtaken Bloor and Yonge as the place you want to be if you are in the ad business,” says Esmé Carroll, the firm’s Chairman and CEO, adding that it’s also a matter of all the businesses related to advertising being located in downtown west that has helped guide migration to the area. As a result, she says, if you are trying to attract talent, good people want to be where the action is. “And this is where the action is in this business,” she says from her firm’s brick and beam main floor space, which includes a deck and whose main entrance is set in a courtyard off King Street West. The strategically focused creative shop sets its sights on client deliverables. Whether it’s increasing sales of consumer goods,

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promoting awareness of mental health issues or conserving energy with the Ontario Power Authority, success is guided by client needs. Sometimes that’s advertising in the traditional sense and other times it’s about re-thinking a strategy completely. When Swiss Chalet sought to increase sales, for example, the firm didn’t just find new ways to talk about chicken, it created the Festive Special promotion. “That annual promotion is now one of the company’s most successful events of all time,” says Carroll.

Mercedes-Benz and Toshiba Clients These days, ACLC does a lot of work with Mercedes-Benz Canada, creating print and outdoor advertising and designing the automaker’s brochures and catalogues. Toshiba laptops is another large account, as is the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. ACLC is the North American Agency of Record for Swedish pharmaceutical SCA, and the firm also creates advertising for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Salvation Army. As for growth, Carroll, like many of her peers, sees the Internet as a barely tapped alternative to traditional media. To this end, the firm formed PUSH Interactive, a wholly owned division of ACLC that concentrates on creating interactive components for all their work. Carroll says the agency is also growing its media operations, having hired a new VP of media. If you’re curious to find out more about ACLC, check out their web site at www.aclc.ca.

Lighting June’s Luminato City’s first all-encompassing arts and culture fest sparks world premieres and international collaborations QUEEN RICHMOND EAST / – Toronto is no stranger to art festivals but to date, these events have always celebrated one particular discipline. “That’s what Luminato aims to correct,” says Janet Price CEO of Toronto’s new multi-disciplinary arts festival. “Luminato is a remarkable collaboration of the city’s arts organizations, artists and supporters who have created an unparalleled program highlighting Toronto’s premier arts assets,” says Price. “At the same time, as a creative renaissance unfolds in our city, we have united to produce what is certainly a festival of global scale and distinction.” The Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, whose offices are located at the Queen Richmond Centre, was conceived by co-founders David Pecaut and Tony Gagliano in response to the city’s flagging tourism figures following SARS.

Music-driven multimedia event, Constantinople, represents the artistic crossroads of East and West.

In the tradition of Venice’s Biennal and the Edinburgh Festival, Luminato, which runs from June 1st to the 10th, aims to create a world-scale arts event. To this end, organizers have enlisted artists such as Eric Idle, Philip Glass, Atom Egoyan and Leonard Cohen to present collaborations – many of which will constitute world premieres. Beyond tapping into the city’s cultural centres for premieres and international collaborations in music, theatre, dance, opera and visual art, the festival will also introduce

Some of the World Premieres at Luminato... • Book of Longing – Philip Glass’ original concert work based on Leonard Cohen’s first collection of poems in over 20 years. • Not the Messiah (He’s A Very Naughty Boy) – Spamalot’s Tony and Grammy Award-winning creators Eric Idle and John Du Prez present the world premiere of an original light-hearted oratorio inspired by Monty Python’s Life of Brian. • An Evening With Glenn Gould – In recognition of the 75th anniversary of his birth and the 25th anniversary of his death, the Distillery District will present the world premiere of an original play with music about the last night of Glenn Gould’s life. • Vida! The David and Ed Mirvish & Peter Sever production of Danza Cuba’s Vida! – at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Created by choreographer Lizt Alfonso and performed by Danza Cuba, Havana’s most popular dance company, this world premiere stars the Buena Vista Social Club’s Omara Portuondo. • Auroras/Testimony – an exhibition of video portraits by Turkish artist Kutlug Ataman and filmmaker Atom Egoyan.

a wide-ranging line-up of free events, special celebrations and even a lecture series entitled “Illuminations.” It is an ambitiously broad program that features hundreds of presentations touching on all manner of artistic expression. For example, festival watchers can enjoy the very public spectacle of a live painting demonstration where Montreal visual artist Carlito Dalceggio will spend 10 days creating a 67-by-50-foot canvas in the theatre district, or revel in an intimate evening listening to novelist, journalist Gore Vidal. The complex array of lectures, performances, demonstrations and presentations of every type, all administer to the festival’s simple tenets of accessibility (free events), diversity (celebrating Toronto’s international heritage) and collaboration (drawing artists together to create truly original works). Events in the Distillery District include a multicultural series of shows featuring Italian, Portuguese and Spanish artists, the Art of Jazz series featuring Grammy Award winner Jane Bunnett, and the Young Centre will present Kenneth Welsh’s one-man show Under Milk Wood. Live@Courthouse on Adelaide will feature a week-long celebration of New Orleans jazz, and at the Harbourfront Centre you can catch Hawksley Workman and Buckwheat Zydeco as part of the Masters of World Music program. Luminato events take place at various locations across the city, June 1-10. For more information visit www.luminato.com or call Ticketmaster at 416-872-1111 for tickets.

3 • SPRING 2007

CONTACT around King and Spadina BRASSAII COURTYARD @ 461 King Street West

European fashion photographer Jonathan De Villiers’ ShangHigh features Chinese workers in designer suits photographed on dusty concrete and I-beam work sites as a comment on Shanghai’s excessiveness and rapid urban expansion.

HP GALLERY @ 111 Bathurst St.

This exhibition of images by participants from CONTACT’s portfolio reviews represents the best work seen in all disciplines, including fine art, commercial and documentary photography.

A GALLERY @135 Bathurst St.

Using acrylic inks on photographs, Alex Jowett presents relationships in the natural world as a reflection of human relationships and environments in The Nature of Things.

BLACK LINE STUDIO @ 577 King Street West

In We Just Like Taking Pictures candid street shots are duplicated and reconstructed using paint, pencil and airbrush.

THE CHARLOTTE ROOM @ 19 Charlotte St.

129

NICHOLAS METIVIER GALLERY @ 451 King St. W.

Known for creating large-scale photos of interior architectural spaces such as convention centres, factories and museums, Jose Manuel Ballester celebrates structural spectacles like latticeworks of steel beams, mile-high vaulted ceilings and reflections on polished concrete floors stretching to infinity. He alters his images with computer manipulation to accentuate the spatial volumes and deepen the space, effectively creating a new kind of space for photography.

158 159

Paul Snowdon’s Discovering Angkor is an exploration of ancient temples and tumbled bricks in Cambodia.

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O’CONNOR GALLERY @145 Berkeley Street English photographer Edward Lucie-Smith, whose career is in its sixth decade, uses nude models in 20 photographs, each demonstrating an eye for integrating symbolic and “accidental” elements of the environs into the composition.

Showing work from Annie Baillargeon, Jenna Edwards, Nicholas Knight, Osheen Harruthoonyan and Elena Willis.

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In Liberty Village MARO @ 135 Liberty Street Marnie Salsky’s Don Valley Brickworks series examines the present state of disrepair of this historic location. Despite the impressions of loneliness, the graffiti within the abandoned buildings tells of an urban environment that continues to thrive and grow in its community spirit.

TORONTO SCHOOL OF ART @ 410 Adelaide St. W.

Composites features digital and black & white work from students and alumni.

Queen Street West

Richmond Street West

Liza Ngyen’s Souvenirs of Vietnam explores representation, memory and aesthetics that question how the past is created, discussed and remembered.

Bathurst Street

On Queen Street East

TORONTO IMAGE WORKS GALLERY @ 80 Spadina Ave.

GALLERY 44 @ 401 Richmond Street West

JOHN STEINBERG AND ASSOCIATES @ 585 King Street West

Some Allied Properties tenants further away are also CONTACT venues...

Early May features D.R. Cowles documenting architecture in North Africa. After May 16th, it’s a series by Sarah Mangialardo lluminating issues of personal relevance to most women.

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WYNICK/TUCK GALLERY @ 401 Richmond St. West

Sara Angelucci’s Double Take follows the narrative of identical twin sisters recounting their traumatic witnessing of a family member’s death. The single-channel video appears similar to a stereographic image: a woman, simply dressed with her hair pulled back, sits before a burgundy background, seemingly mirrored in two frames. One twin begins her monologue, joined by the other moments later. Together, they weave a dual narrative of differing recollections.

RYERSON GALLERY @ 80 Spadina Ave.

Toronto urban explorers find beauty in rust and broken glass in a show featuring photos of the city’s abandoned spaces in Enemies of the Ordinary.

195

185

Adelaide Street West

184 158 159

69 195

King Street West

129

Spadina Ave.

129 – Jose Manuel Ballester’s Deposito de Gas, 2006 69 – Liza Nguyen’s DIEN BIEN PHU, 2005

195 – A video still from Double Take, 2007, by Sara Angelucci

P4 – From the series ShangHigh, 2005, by Jonathan de Villiers OCONNOR – ‘Rick, London’, 2006, by Edward Lucie-Smith (with P. Pearlstein detail)

184 – Osheen Harruthoonyan’s Fantasies of the Elephant Man

35 – Going Exploring, 2006, by Tammy Hoy

92 – Paul Snowdon’s Temple with Crossed Trees, 2003

3 – Alex Jowett’s Brothers From Other Mothers

159 – Untitled by Sarah Mangialardo

Maro – Shed, 2006, by Marnie Salsky

5 • SPRING 2007

INCOMING

TOTUM TIPS

Supplement Spring Cycling with Strength Training

Allied Buys Montreal’s Cité Multimédia

For most cyclists, hours on the road has traditionally been seen as the best method of training, but increasingly, riders are turning to gyms to develop power and endurance. Totum trainer Joanna Zdrojewska, who offers onsite Computrainer™ VO2 max and anaerobic threshold testing to cyclists, suggests the following exercises as a means of mimicking the muscle patterning used in cycling. Essentially, these work to build strength and endurance and to improve stability.

Stability Ball Hamstring Curl: (improves hamstring and calf endurance) 1. Lying on your back, place feet on stability ball; bridge hips up and hold position. 2. While holding the bridge, bend your knees and curl the ball in towards your buttocks. 3. Straighten your legs and return to starting position.

MONTREAL / – In April, Allied Properties REIT purchased the Cité Multimédia, a well known Montreal technology park nestled in the Old Port district next to the Lachine canal. Made up of seven high-tech buildings, the Cité is the result of a private-public partnership that formed in 1998 to build new buildings and retrofit 19th century spaces to create a leading technology work campus. Designed to help position Montreal in the highly competitive global technology market, the Government of Quebec offered generous tax benefits to companies wanting to set up business in the Cité. With high ceilings, lots of natural light, exposed structural frames, interior brick and hardwood floors, the 955,564-square-foot office campus has much in common with Allied’s Toronto buildings and is comparable in character to Liberty Village. Today, it counts CGI, Motorola, Compuware and SAP Labs among its largest tenants. Purchase of the Cité makes the Montreal portion of Allied Properties REIT’s portfolio almost as large as its Toronto holdings.

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Walking Lunge: (improves quadriceps and glute strength and endurance) 1. Holding moderate weights, stand upright, feet together and take a controlled step forward with one leg. 2. Lower hips towards the ground and bend both knees to almost 90 degrees. 3. Push off with the opposite foot and bring it forward to starting, upright position.

Stability Ball Pike: (improves core strength) 1. Start in push-up position with back straight and feet centered on the stability ball. Keep core (abdominals braced). 2. While keeping your back flat, tuck knees into your body and contract your abdominals. 3. Keeping back flat, abdominals braced, extend legs to starting position. Repeat Step 1.

www.totum.ca

Anatomy of a Redesign: MINI 2007 What does a completely-redesigned-from-the-ground-up 2007 MINI look like? Generally like the old one, and that’s the point, explains Charles Nguyen, sales manager at the MINI Downtown at 500 King Street West. “The shape has to stay true to the MINI form, because that’s what makes it a MINI,” he says. Still, every body panel has been redesigned and the interior is roomier than before. Here are a few of the changes, but to learn more, Nguyen suggests dropping in to book a test drive. The centre speedo on both models is even larger and encompasses functions for the entertainment system as well as the optional satellite navigation system.

The hood is 1.5 inches longer and less than an inch higher. The extra space accommodates a larger, 172 hp turbocharged engine (rather than its supercharged predecessor) and the length fulfills new regulations for the protection of pedestrians.

The windows form a dark, unified strip of glass around the body, tapering distinctly towards the rear. The Cooper S uses 6.9 litres/100 km, and the Cooper is even more economical at 5.8 litres/100 km (making the latter eligible for a $1,000 ecoAUTO rebate).

While slightly larger than its predecessors, the new MINI still looks small given its short body overhangs and large tires pushed to the edge of the chassis.

7 • SPRING 2007

Picturing the Past and Present

City of Toronto Archives, Ser ies 71, Item 7172

193 Yonge Former HQ for Famous Canadian Piano Firm

Looking north from Queen and Yonge in August 1929, and today.

Published four times a year by: Allied Properties REIT 602 King Street West, Main floor Toronto, ON M5V 1M6 Editor: Yvan Marston yvan@gravitydesign.ca Design/Layout: Gravity Design Inc. scott@gravitydesign.ca

YONGE STREET / – Right of centre in these photos is 193-195 Yonge Street’s Heintzman Hall, a building Allied Properties recently acquired. While currently the headquarters of Corby’s Distillery (hence the Wiser’s banner) and other tenants (Homesense recently opened in the retail space), the eight-storey building, built in 1903, was first modified in 1910 to accommodate the Heintzman Piano Company. Established in 1860 by German immigrant Theodore August Heintzman, the piano company grew quickly and by 1911, 193 Yonge Street had become the firm’s head office and main showroom. Under the presidency of Theodore’s son George, the firm employed some 400 staff and by 1920, about 3,000 Heintzman pianos were sold annually. There were 18 branch stores and 13 distributors, from coast to coast, and the export trade was significant. The company prospered for some years before mergers, succession and market forces saw it sold in 1981 to Sklar-Peppler, which continued to make pianos until 1986.

To list an event or submit a story idea, please send details to news@alliedpropertiesreit.com

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