Canadian Interiors: July/August 2009 Edition

July/August 2009

Our new favourite‌ Restaurant Hotel Wine bar

Plus: Hot stuff for the kitchen

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July/August 2009

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FEATURES

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At Your Service

DEPARTMENTS INSIDE – 8 WHAT’S UP — 10

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AWARDS — 13 Good better best Announcing the nominees for the 2009 Best of Canada Design Awards.

By Michael Totzke

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THREE WAY —20 Nota Bene, designed by KPMB Architects, is a new Toronto hotspot with a lucky number.

By Leslie C. Smith

THE KITCHEN Running hot and cold — 14 The latest in cooking, refrigeration and faucets.

Fire and ice — 16 A new kitchen appliance showroom, designed by Cecconi Simone.

By Erin Donnelly

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STAY PURE—25 Au revoir Holiday Inn, bonjour Hotel Pur: in Quebec City, Bisson et Associés transforms a soulless ’70s building into a mecca of minimalism.

By Rhys Phillips

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À VOTRE SANTÉ!—30 Here’s to designer Zébulon Perron, who turned a Montreal dive into a design-award-winning wine bar.

By Rhys Phillips 25

Description: Canadian Interiors

Contents

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File Name

20320

060809

Client: GSD&M

KOHCAN9017_103F_9x11.875_Charmer.indd / Snake Charmer

COVER — 20 Nota Bene, a Toronto restaurant designed

by KPMB Architects.

Photo by Tom Arban

WHO’S WHO — 32 LAST WORD — 34 Works well with others At lunch with creative director – and collaborator nonpareil – Patrizia Moroso.

By Shauna Levy

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July/August 2009 VOL.46 NO.5

Publisher

Martin Spreer Editor

Michael Totzke Managing Editor

Erin Donnelly Associate Editors

Janet Collins, David Lasker, Rhys Phillips, Leslie C. Smith Contributing Writer

Shauna Levy Art Direction/Design

Ellie Robinson, Lisa Zambri Advertising Sales

416-510-6766 Natalie Quammie Marketplace/Classified 416-510-5198 Circulation Manager

Beata Olechnowicz 416-442-5600, ext. 3543 Reader Services

Liz Callaghan Production

Jessica Jubb 416-510-5194 Senior Publisher

Tom Arkell Vice President of Canadian Publishing

Alex Papanou President of Business Information Group

Bruce Creighton Head Office

12 Concorde Place, Suite 800 Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 Telephone 416-442-5600 Facsimile 416-510-5140 Canadian Interiors magazine is published by Business Information Group, a division of BIG magazines LP, Tel: 416-442-5600, Fax: 416-510-6875 e-mail: info@canadianinteriors.com website: www.canadianinteriors.com Canadian Interiors publishes seven issues, plus a source guide, per year.

Printed in Canada. The content of this publication is the property of Canadian Interiors and cannot be reproduced without permission from the publisher.

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Back issues Back copies are available for $10 for delivery in Canada and $15 US for delivery in U.S.A. and overseas. Please send payment to Canadian Interiors, 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 or order online www.canadianinteriors.com For subscription and back issues inquiries please call 416-442-5600 ext.3543, e-mail: circulation@canadianinteriors.com, or go to our website at: www.canadianinteriors.com Newsstands For information on Canadian Interiors on 足newsstands in Canada, call 905-619-6565 Canadian Interiors is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia ProQuest Company, Toronto (www.micromedia.com) and National Archive Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan (www.napubco.com).

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Inside

Neighbourhood watch In this issue, we pay tribute to a trio of “good neighbours”: two architectural firms and a designer who have taken great care, in recent projects, to respect, reflect and reinvigorate their surroundings. The three projects – a restaurant, a hotel and a bar – are hospitable in every sense of the word.

For the two architectural firms, the design process began with the buildings housing the projects themselves.

In Toronto, KPMB Architects took on the design of One Eighty Queen West, a brand-new, 15-storey commercial property at the hub of several distinct urban areas – the city’s legal and financial districts to the east; the Four Seasons Opera House and theatre district to the south; and the hip Queen West neighbourhood to the west. At street level, the architects created a vibrant restaurant they hoped would be equally attractive to opera and theatre patrons, the legal community, corporate clients and the Queen West crowd, as well as extend the vibrancy of the street east to University Avenue. Despite the danger inherent in trying to be “everything to everyone,” they seem to have pulled it off with Nota Bene – in part due to a vibe that is, in the words of principal architect Tom Payne, “friendly, inclusive, warm-cool” (“Three way,” page 20).

In Saint-Roch, one of Quebec City’s oldest suburbs, Bisson et Associés took an unloved 18-storey concrete tower – once a Holiday Inn – and made it into something cool. Maintaining the ’70s personality of the facade, the architects replaced the original, small windows of its 220 rooms with floor-to-ceiling glass. Long and narrow, with minimalist furnishings, each room offers an unrestricted view of a rapidly resurgent Saint-Roch (“Stay pure,” page 25).

Finally, Zébulon Perron turned a notorious dive in the Mile-End neighbourhood of Montreal into the design-award-winning Buvette Chez Simone – a wine bar as lived-in and lively as Mile-End itself (“À votre santé!’ on page 30).

Nota Bene, Hotel Pur and Buvette Chez Simone: welcome to the neighbourhood. c I Michael Totzke mtotzke@canadianinteriors.com

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What’s Up

JULY/AUG. Speed and its limits “The world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed.” Such was the founding manifesto of Italian Futurism, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

To mark the occasion, Montreal’s Canadian Centre for Architecture is presenting an exhibition devoted to the inescapable presence of speed in modern life – in art, architecture and urbanism, the graphic arts, economics and material culture. The exhibition is coorganized with the WolfsonianFlorida International University in Miami Beach, and curated

by Jeffrey T. Schnapp of the Stanford Humanities Lab. Speed Limits probes the

powers and limits of the modern era’s cult of speed in the domains of circulation and transit, construction and the built environment, efficiency, the measurement and representation of rapid motion, and the mind/ body relationship.

A variety of objects spanning a 100-year cultural history reveal the long-standing polarities and closely intertwined relationship between the fast and the slow.

“In recent years, the Canadian Centre for Architecture has undertaken a number of projects addressing the question of limits, including the limits of visual perception in Sense of the City and of postwar notions of progress in 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas,” says

CCA director Mirko Zardini.

“These exhibitions challenged some founding myths of contemporary life, while bringing to light practices shaping daily experience. Speed Limits investigates one of the greatest of these myths, and challenges us to find alternatives to the reliance on speed in contemporary society.”

Materials in Speed Limits cover the period from 1900 to the present. Above Seattle in 1983. Left Irving Trust Company Building, 1 Wall Street, New York, on August 1, 1930.

Below Photomontage of projects by Dutch architect Mart Stam from the 1920s.

10 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

Presented in the CCA’s main galleries, the exhibition features more than 240 objects from the collections of the CCA and the Wolfsonian – including books, photographs, advertising posters, architectural drawings, publications and videos. Together they present a multifaceted view that is both a defence of speed and an implicit criticism of its negative effect on contemporary life. Covering the period from 1900 to the present, the exhibition analyzes the evolution of the process of production and construction, the beginnings of prefabrication, the household, traffic and transit, and the workplace, as viewed through the prism of speed.

Conceived and installed in a linear fashion, each of the six distinct but interrelated themes is explored in its own gallery: Pace, Traffic, Fast Construction, Efficiency, Motion Capture and Measuring, and Mind/Body.

Speed Limits runs at the CCA until Oct. 12.

IIDEX at 25 IIDEX/NeoCon Canada, the country’s most comprehensive exposition and conference for the design, construction, and management of the built environment, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2009. This year’s theme – IIDEX: The Next Twenty Five – reflects the show’s position as an industry leader, providing the latest and most in-depth products, speakers, ideas and events that will shape the next 25 years of design and architecture in Canada and beyond.

Also cause for celebration is the 75th anniversary of ARIDO (the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario), the founder of IIDEX. The show

itself is produced and managed by Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI), which manages and owns more than 300 events in North America, including Chicago’s famous NeoCon World’s Trade Fair.

This year’s IIDEX highlights include the Green Building Festival, focusing on sustainable products and services for the built environment; Material World, showcasing the latest new and sustainable materials; an expanded Light Canada, the country’s largest lighting show and conference; the Green Patient Lab, updated from last year’s Green Patient Room; and, for the first time ever, Canadian Interiors’ Best

of Canada Design Awards Celebration.

IIDEX/NeoCon Canada runs at the Direct Energy Centre, in Toronto, Sept. 24 and 25.

IIDEX/NeoCon Canada, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009, provides the latest and most in-depth products, speakers, ideas and events shaping design and architecture in Canada and beyond.

Above View inside the canühome exhibit from last year’s show.

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Awards

Good better best Announcing the nominees for the 2009 Best of Canada Design Awards.

—By Michael Totzke On a Friday in June, managing editor Erin Donnelly and I hosted the judging of Canadian Interiors’ 12th annual Best of Canada Design Awards. Our five judges, invited for their experience and expertise, came together to examine 146 entries from across the country. After careful consideration, they narrowed the field to 35 nominees – listed below, under their categories, in alphabetical order.

A lively debate and discussion followed.

At the end of the process, the judges chose 20 winners, which will be revealed at a special Best of Canada Design Awards Celebration on Sept. 25. For the first time this year, the celebration is part of the IIDEX/ NeoCon Canada show at Toronto’s Direct Energy Centre.

Congratulations to all the nominees.

PROJECTS

• MMM Group: office for an industry leader in engineering consulting services (Toronto) – Modo • Red Bull Lounge: space to serve as lounge, kitchen, meeting room, entertainment venue, gallery and presentation centre (Vancouver) – SSDG • Stantec Guelph Office: space for a team of environmental scientists and landscape architects – Stantec Architecture

Institutional • Clinique OVO: fertility clinic (Montreal) – NFOE et associés architectes • George Brown College Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts: Culinary School and Chefs’ House Restaurant (Toronto) – Kearns Mancini Architects with Gow Hastings Architects • The Jackman Humanities Institute: University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Sciences – Kohn Schnier Architects • Jean-Lesage International Airport (Quebec City) – Consortium d’architectes GPC (Gagnon, Letellier, Cyr / Provencher Roy + associés / Cardinal Hardy & associés) • Richmond Speed Skating Oval (Richmond, B.C.) – Cannon Design • Ryerson Student Information and Advising Centre: Ryerson University (Toronto) – Gow Hastings Architects • School of Interior Design: Ryerson University (Toronto) – Gow Hastings Architects

Hospitality • Green Thai: restaurant (Thornhill, Ont.) – J. Cho Design • Jean-Lesage International Airport: VIP and Protocol Lounges (Quebec City) – Consortium d’architectes GPC (Gagnon, Letellier, Cyr / Provencher Roy + associés / Cardinal Hardy & associés) • Mildred’s Temple Kitchen: restaurant (Toronto) – du Toit Architects Limited • Spring Rolls: restaurant (Toronto) – Dialogue 38 • W-Hotel Downtown Atlanta: hotel and condominium – Burdifilek

Offices

Residential

• Fuel: office for an advertising agency (Toronto) – Bartlett & Associates • The Juggernaut Offices: space for a post-production, design and animation studio (Toronto) – Giannone Petricone Associates Architects

• Armstrong Avenue Residence: renovation of a house originally constructed as a dairy (Toronto) – Taylor Smyth Architects • Cascade House: new, sustainable residence (Toronto) – Paul Raff Studio

of

• Fourth Street House: renovation of a 1920s residence (Toronto) – Michael Moxam • Modern Metamorphosis: renovation of a postwar bungalow (Vancouver) – Céline Interiors • Private Residence: new waterfront vacation home (Okanagan, B.C.) – Mitchell Freedland Design

Retail • Imperial, Carrefour Laval: fashion label for men and women (Laval, Que.) – Ruscio Studio • Obakki: showcasing clothes, jewelry and accessories (Vancouver) – mcfarlane | green | biggar

Marketing • Charlie Sales Centre (Toronto) – Cecconi Simone • Distillery District Clear Spirit Condominiums Marketing Centre Lobby Design (Toronto) – Chase International • Liberty Market Lofts: model suite (Toronto) – Chapman Design Group • Queen and Portland Model Suite (Toronto) – Kantelberg Design • W-Hotel Downtown Atlanta Condominium Sales Center – Burdifilek

LANDSCAPE DESIGN • Boustrophedon Garden: ephemeral garden (Quebec City) – Plant Architect • Green Roof + Carport (Toronto) – Cecconi Simone • Lookout Pavilion (Toronto) – Drew Mandel Design

PRODUCTS • Isola 8: lounge seating “oasis,” designed by Karim Rashid – Nienkämper • Planna: storage-based casegoods system – Inscape • Visualizm: AV unit, designed and produced by Jerad Mack and Shane Pawluk – IZM

2009 Design Awards JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 13

The Kitchen

Fire and ice Contrasting kitchen appliances create the theme in this new showroom designed by Elaine Cecconi.

—By Erin Donnelly

You’re not likely to miss the new Sub-Zero/ Wolf showroom, which recently opened on Toronto’s King Street East. Two walls of bright colour visually reach out to passersby, through the fully glazed storefront, making for a pretty eye-catching property, even in the midst of all the Design District eye candy.

It only gets better once you’ve been lured inside. Once through the doors you get a clear view of the soaring front space, graced on either side by product displays 14 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

that designer Elaine Cecconi, of Cecconi Simone, has framed in luminous back painted glass. On one side, wrapped in true blue, you have the Sub-Zero display of refrigerators that make you wonder why anyone would ever want to camouflage a fridge among the cabinetry (though that is of course, an option in the product offerings). On the opposite side, ensconced in candy apple red, are the Wolf ranges and cooktops, with the commercial grade products displayed here in the front.

On the reverse side of the Wolf display, cooktops are stacked below the countertops, pulling out like drawers. This allows space for all products to be available for clients to see first hand, not just the newest or most popular.

The vibrant red and blue not only represent the hot and cold nature of the products’ functions, but the branding colours that were associated long before the two brands joined in 2000. The reflective nature of the glass creates a slightly varPhotography by Joy von Tiedemann

ied look, depending on the light washing through the front.

At the centre of the showroom is an area that shows some of the products in a contemporary setting, and beyond other compositions show the products in traditional and loft contexts. The showroom will also be able to host events, with a lounge, a dining room and a fully functional pro kitchen at the back, to show off the products in action.

JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 15

The Kitchen

Running hot and cold The latest in cooking, refrigeration and faucets.

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—By Erin Donnelly 2

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1-HANSGROHE For the first time ever, Hansgrohe has introduced a full complement of kitchen faucets. The Talis S kitchen collection is characterized by basic curves and simple, stick-like handles. The line includes prep kitchen, potfiller (shown) and bar faucet options. All are available in chrome or Steel Optik, a brushed metal finish. www.hansgrohe.com

2-PORTER & CHARLES A fairly recent addition to the North American market, Porter and Charles introduced new products at the 2009 Green Living Show in Toronto. The FEC 76 Stainless Steel Flat Top Electric Range is ENERGY STAR–rated and boasts a 105-litre oven capacity with a five-burner Ceran cooking service, with four hi-light elements. The triple-glazed glass doors stay super cool and a warming oven is also featured. www.porterandcharles.ca

16 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

3-LIEBHERR German refrigerator manufacturer Liebherr is now offering a 24-inch-wide Freestanding Refrigerator and Freezer with IceMaker. Keeping in mind that not everyone needs a giant double-door fridge, this slimmer model is perfect for smaller families or condo kitchens where space is limited. This ENERGY STAR–rated product features new SwingLine doors that increase energy efficiency and make opening effortless www.liebherr.com www.euro-line-appliances.com

4-KOHLER Among the new introductions at this year’s Kitchen/Bath Industry Show was Kohler’s Iron/Occasions integrated top and bowl island. The 39-by-63-inch unit offers both a work surface and a trough sink, which is centred, running the full length, and is designed for flexible faucet options. The

worktop is composed entirely of cast iron, can be installed on a sleek stainless steel base or with standard island cabinetry, and is available in a range of colours. www.kohler.com

5-THERMADOR Thermador’s Star Burner has recently been updated. The new model offers an elevated Quick Clean base and increased fuel output for a maximum power of 18k BTU. The ExtraLow burners, however, can take it down to 375 BTUs, for a delicate simmer.

Beginning this summer, all Pro Harmony Ranges and Professional Series cooktops will offer the new burners. www.thermador.ca

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The Kitchen

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1-JACLO The Steam Valve Original is the newest faucet line from Jaclo. The industrial looking stainless steel faucets are designed with advanced technology and a patented pull-off spray that allows the spray feature to be added to bridge mixer, or even combine the spray with a wall-mounted mixer. Deck-mounted, single-hole and three-hole versions are available with a range of spout options and four handle designs. Potfillers are also included in the collection. www.jaclo.com 2-BRIZO New from Brizo, Belo is a pull-down faucet with a sculptural look, named for the Portuguese word for “beautiful.” Incorporating a four-function pullout wand, it also offers Brizo’s MagneDock technology, which uses magnetic force to ensure the wand is locked securely in place after each use. Belo also features patent-pending Diamond Seal Technology, which means

18 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

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water is never in contact with potential metal contaminants, like brass, copper or lead. www.brizo.com

3-AMERICAN STANDARD The new Arch faucets from American Standard are designed to provide the flexibility for all the tasks we perform at the kitchen sink. Four models offer unique performance and installation advantages, and the spray (in pull-out or deck-mounted options) features a toggle button underneath the spout that allows easy switching between spray and stream. Elegantly curved, Arch is named for its inspiration, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, designed by Eero Saarinen. www.americanstandard.ca 4-DORNBRACHT Dornbracht’s iconic Tara faucets, introduced over 15 years ago, were recently refined by the company, and a selection of new kitchen models has been introduced.

Wall-mounted, three-hole and a 260-mm

pillar version of Tara are now available.

Technical aspects have also been improved upon, with new aerators cutting down on noise and reducing water flow. In polished chrome or platinum matte. www.dornbracht.com

5-DURAVIT A new collection of kitchen sinks designed

by Philippe Starck was recently launched

by Duravit. Stark K’s simple forms are characterized by right angles forming simple, rectangular shapes in generous sizes. Designed with an intricate draining system, the sink is available in three sizes, with the draining surface to the left or the right, or, as with the smallest size, not incorporated. www.duravit.com

iideX the neXt twenty Five

Lighting Keynote Presentation

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25

aridO presents the 25th anniversary OF iideX/neOcOn canada Exposition

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At Your Service

Three way Nota Bene, designed by KPMB Architects, is a new Toronto hotspot with a lucky number. —By Leslie C. Smith

20 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

Photography by Tom Arban

A series of light-filled acrylic pillars and walnut partitions are Nota Bene’s focal feature, dividing the bar from the restaurant. The spaces formed are distinct but not completely separate, allowing energy to flow between them. Comfy banquette seating, leather cab chairs and café-sized tables are set for casual drinks and dining. The front “shop windows” offer passersby and clientele alike a street-level view of each other, adding to the theatricality of the Queen Street West scene.

You can’t help but notice the new Mackenzie Investments building. Rising high above its surroundings, all concrete and glass, the solid 21st-century anchor attaches to a string of mainly 19th-century storefronts stretching along Queen Street West. At its base sits the swish Nota Bene restaurant, directly across from long-time area entities Kops Records, Atlas Machine Supplies and The Condom Shack. It’s a face-off that will prove no contest – the next step in the gentrification of funky Queen West has begun.

Yet look closer and you’ll discover that Tom Payne, principal in Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, has shown remarkable sensitivity to this Toronto neighbourhood, has even drawn on that push-pull between the well-shod corporate elite inhabiting his building’s upper offices and the edgier urbanites strolling the street below, using that energy to inform his design.

“We’re right at the vortex of city culture,” Payne said in a recent interview.

“You have the ceremonial, in City Hall and the Osgoode Hall law courts; the artistic, with the Four Seasons Opera House and Art Gallery of Ontario; and all this peppy Queen West counter-culture. We wanted to make everything meet here.”

And meet here it does. The Mackenzie building as a whole is not a whole, but rather three distinct parts: a soaring, curved glass curtain on top; an angular concrete-and-glass box in the middle, complete with main-entrance cantilevered canopy; and a window-filled “retail space” beneath, whose cunning grey tile cladding extends just three storeys high, keeping that part of the structure literally in line with the rest of the area’s Victorian edifices.

Nota Bene’s facade is itself divided into three intervals, courtesy of sketched-in tile pillars. And each of these three contained spaces echoes another right-angled pattern in chrome, glass and backlit acrylic bands. This playful repetition of angles, axials and symmetry carries on throughout the restaurant’s interior. “Little surprise treats,” Payne calls them.

Like the building that houses it and the window embrasures that define it, Nota Bene is a tripartite place, with a casual banquette dining section at ground level, a higher-seating bar behind it and a raised platform dining room beyond.

JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 21

Outside Nota Bene, the view east is lit by the exterior’s coloured acrylic panelling (right), towards the offices, law courts and opera house on University Avenue. Face the other way, and you’ll still see many of the funky, idiosyncratic shops the Queen West neighbourhood is known for. Nota Bene is a place to see and be seen, yet still feels intimate. It’s half-open, bi-level concept permits plenty of people-watching. The space is split (opposite top) into casual dining at ground level, a higher-seating bar (above) behind it and a raised dining room beyond. In the latter (opposite centre), a feature wall glimpsed at the back has a black floating glass show window in which wine bottles are lit by a raspberry gel. The warm-cool aesthetic and strong artistic vibe is in keeping with the Queen West sensibility. Swaths of coloured light and large glass tulip shades (opposite bottom) dramatically play off the wooden wall and contrasting plaster-patterned wall.

22 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

There are no barriers between these divisions; rather there are suggested distinctions: dark café tables by the banquettes, a length of warm grey Grigio Piove stone along the bar-top, white-linen-covered square tables in the dining room. Of the latter, project architect Brad Hindson recalls the lengthy critical analysis involved, trying to hit on the exact, perfect size: “We were sitting at a plywood table, with the carpenter shaving a half-inch off at a time.

Then we’d look it over carefully and have him shave another half-inch off.”

That same intensive scrutiny was applied to the five, huge interior-lit pillars that effectively separate the dining room from the rest of the space, yet form a focal point for all three areas. “It took eight weeks to finalize their colour and finish – even the little decorative line down their centres,” says Hindson. “We needed the perfect plastic, and ended up choosing this half-inch frosted acrylic.”

Hindson also selected the separatebut-equal lighting fixtures: recessed wall troughs plus overhead incandescents and key spots for the dining room; suspended lighting running the length of the bar; and walnut-and-chrome coves with descending tulip-shaped Venetian glass shades above the street-level banquettes. A shock of raspberry frames the latter, a shade repeated in the throw pillows on the chartreuse leather seats.

“We weren’t afraid to use splashes of colour,” says Tom Payne. He adds that KPMB interior designers Carolyn Lee and Frances Lago, along with associatein-charge David Jesson, were integral in creating a “friendly, inclusive, warm-cool” vibe, reflective of the restaurant ownermanagers’ personalities, not to mention that of Queen Street West itself.

Oddly enough, like so many other things involved with Nota Bene’s design, the proprietors – Franco Prevedello, GM Yannick Bigourdan and chef David Lee – came in three as well. c I

JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 23

iideX tHe neXt twenty Five

aridO Presents tHe 25tH anniversary OF iideX/neOCOn Canada Exposition

september 24 – 25, 2009 ConfErEnCE

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www.iideXneOCOn.COm

25

now includes

Green BuildinG Festival & liGHt Canada

At Your Service

Stay pure Au revoir Holiday Inn, bonjour Hotel Pur: in Quebec City, Bisson et Associés transforms a soulless ’70s building into a mecca of minimalism.

—By Rhys Phillips

Photography by Pur l’Agence Interactive

JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 25

A city comfortable with its past tends both to protect its built heritage and still encourage the new. The politics of sovereignty notwithstanding, Quebec City is such a place. While it continues to consolidate the preservation of its unique historic buildings stretching back 400 years, the ongoing major revitalization of the commercial core beyond its storied walls mixes new design with the adaptive reuse of older structures.

Last year’s opening of Hotel Pur in the rapidly transforming neighbourhood of Saint-Roch, after a complete refurbishment

by Bisson et Associés for the Willow Hotels group, represented both preservation and a bold departure. While many might not find great heritage merit in preserving a rather banal, 18-storey, concrete tower on a podium dating from the 1970s, the architects have both visually transformed

the old Holiday Inn while preserving a powerful expression of its classic concrete frame. By stripping the building back to its structure and replacing small windows with floor-to-ceiling glass in the hotel’s 220 rooms, there is, according to design principal Jonathan Bisson, “a more untrammeled interaction between rooms and the urban environment,” not to mention the striking Laurentian Mountains to the north and the St. Lawrence River to the south.

Most impressive, however, is the remarkable concurrence between the hotel’s name and its award-winning interior.

A rigorously applied, limited palette of white, black and greys with controlled touches of orange, all applied in primarily simple sculpted spaces and rooms stripped of extraneous furniture and unnecessary objects, certainly seeks to distill a rather Zen-like purity. Yet the architects

maintain that their design is both minimalist and sensual. As the first denotes providing only the barest essentials or elements, while the second consists of exciting, indulging and gratifying the senses or appetites, some may find the two terms odd bedfellows.

In his book, Living Zen, however, Michael Paul maintains that the pared-down simplicity of Zen is “a deliberate attempt to rid our lives of clutter and unnecessary distractions …. [leaving a] clean, uncluttered canvas that serves to highlight the intense beauty of all that remains. A space that contains only the bare essentials seems to accentuate the sensuality of the surfaces and finishes.” For Bisson, the studied neutrality of the interior hues and uncluttered spaces ensures that every remaining detail is highlighted – from the exposed raw concrete, bas-relief wallpa-

In Hotel Pur’s lobby (top and opposite), a sculpted steel bench-cum-wall funnels arriving guests toward the reception desk, whose austere but visually impressive geometry certainly focuses each guest; it also serves as a screen to a spare loungecafÊ area with equally sculpted lounges.

A meeting room with abundant natural light (above) eschews beige and brocade for simplicity, greys and whites, and bold planes of rough exposed concrete.

JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 27

Each luminously white room (opposite) is modest in size, long and narrow, and minimally furnished. The room’s dimensions help telescope the view toward the striking panorama beyond a mullion-less and opaque-transparent window; in some rooms, the window is even filled with the fine facade of the historic Neo-Gothic Saint-Roch Church across the street (top).

An elegantly austere bathroom (above) features a deep Japanese soaking tub.

per and molded steel walls to the striking profiles of the city and surrounding landscape. This “economy of means,“ he says, “brings out what was already present in terms of views, materials and light. It sifts out the hidden beauty.”

The original large, nondescript lobby has been broken into two more intimate and compressed spaces. A sculpted steel bench-cum-wall funnels arriving guests toward the reception desk, whose austere but visually impressive geometry certainly focuses each guest. The raw steel wall also serves as a screen to a modest lounge-café area with equally sculpted grey lounges (with a single orange exception) from MDF Italia. In both the lobby and the lounge, Bisson uses lighting recessed in deep wall reveals at both the ceiling and floor to etch out the spatial volumes and define boundaries. “The linearity and the purity

of light,” Bisson says, “have constituted the underlying thrust of the project; light has demarcated the different areas, endowing each of them with a clearly stated function.”

Light also plays a role in defining a path that takes guests from the pure bright white of the lobby through the low light of the hallways, only to open the door onto a luminously white room. The relatively modest-sized rooms – making minimalist furnishings a necessary blessing – are also quite long and narrow. Along with such minimal details as the grey pinstriped carpeting, concealed air conditioning and wall-mounted flatscreen TVs, the room’s dimensions help telescope the view toward the striking panorama beyond the mullion-less and opaque-transparent windows. In some rooms, the window is even filled with the fine facade of the historic

Neo-Gothic Saint-Roch Church across the street. According to Bisson, the intent was to produce a “cinematographic spatial creation using light.”

From elegantly austere bathrooms with deep Japanese soaking tubs to meeting rooms that eschew beige and brocade for simplicity, greys and whites, and bold planes of rough exposed concrete, Pur seeks a rich uniformity. Some online customer reviews suggest that there are those who have trouble with this almost monastic aesthetic. But the hotel’s success since opening suggests that far more find pure comfort in Bisson’s sensual minimalism. c I

JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 29

At Your Service

À votre santé!

Here’s to designer Zébulon Perron, who turned a Montreal dive into a designaward-winning wine bar.

—By Rhys Phillips

At first blush, there appears little doubt that designer Zébulon Perron’s Buvette Chez Simone is a classic example of urban gentrification. After all, Montreal restaurant critic Mark Slutsky has described one of the Parc Avenue wine bar’s predecessors as “the most notorious dive bar in MileEnd,” where illicit transactions and the odd fight were not unknown. Not to mention the freezing bathrooms. But if the word “convivial” appears in almost any review of the popular bistro, Chez Simone explicitly eschews the impersonal minimalism of so many contemporary watering holes.

30 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

Photography by Zébulon Perron

An imposing U-shaped bar (opposite and above) dominates the centre of Buvette Chez Simone. In another area (top), light fixtures hang low over unusual T-shaped tables. Quirky materials employed include bright orange electrical cords and industrial shelves of various green hues turned on their sides to “tile” a wall.

The five wine-aficionado owners selected the moniker “Buvette” precisely, says Perron, because it refers to those “unpretentious…unassuming and occasionally makeshift places” where Europeans gather for a drink and something to eat. To establish the intimacy typical of the buvette, he had first to tame what was a relatively large space. Thus, within the largely retained architecture, he established three discrete areas designed to accommodate and even encourage varied types of contact among patrons. An imposing U-shaped bar dominates the centre of the room, while a raised section has small tables for close encounters. In a third area, he introduced unusual T-shaped tables, standing bars typical of train station buvettes and large communal tables. From bright red ceiling crosses, similar shaped light fixtures hang low to compress the room’s volume.

There is nothing austere, monochromatic or slick about Buvette Chez Simone.

Materials reflecting wine, such as oak and cork, are mixed with colourful, even quirky materials – such as the bright orange electrical cords that refer, says the designer, to the illuminated garlands of many buvettes.

“I like a lived-in quality that gives the comforting impression that [a place has] always been around by keeping some of the original architecture and through the use of recycled materials,” says Perron.

One wall has been “tiled” with a mosaic of old industrial shelves of various green hues turned on their flat side. Hospital waiting room chairs, antique apartment doors leading to the wine cellar and terrace furniture crafted from old barn beams add a decidedly tactile quality.

Last November, this energetic recycling of an unloved Montreal bar into a contemporary European buvette scored both the 2008 Créativité Montréal Grand Prize and the Intérieurs FERDIE Prize. This only adds to Zébulon Perron’s reputation for lively, engaging commercial spaces that has included – with Willo Perron – the earlier award-winning American Apparel prototype store. Buvette Chez Simone, with its accomplished wine, tapas and charcuterie menus, all served within a richly but unpretentiously layered space, sustains Perron’s credo that “form must follow human experience.” c I

JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 31

Who’s Who

1

Tom Dixon at Spoke Club British design star Tom Dixon launched his new Utility Collection, available at Klaus by Nienkämper, at the Spoke Club in Toronto.

2

1—Model scout Paul Mason, Beatrix Nienkämper and Pablo Perez, district manager for EQ3, the contemporary home furniture retailer.

2—Spouses Sarah and Del Terrelonge: she is senior director of sales at market research firm Toluna; developerdesigner Del will soon launch his boutique hotel Templar and condo Langston Hall in the King-Spadina neighbourhood.

3—Our host, Klaus Nienkämper II, who manages the family retail store, Klaus by Nienkämper; and guest of honour Tom Dixon.

4—Janno Badovinac, industrial designer, and Rachel Hale, account manager, at Fugitive Glue; with Richard Kuchinsky, who hand-stamped Eames chairs onto his white shirt, and is “directive creator,” according to his business card, at Directive Collective.

3

4

Gloves off —By David Lasker

1

Raw Design Smackdown Raw Design invited clients and friends to “smackdown” the recession at Florida Joe’s, a Toronto boxing gym, with real live boxers.

1—Atlas Boxing Club’s Victor Lupo, Welterweight Canadian Champion and WBA Federal Latino Champion; Raw Design partners Roland Rom Colthoff and Richard Witt.

2—Marlene Shiff, fashion mentor and former owner of Boutique Le Trou; fashion designer Evan Biddell, 2007 Project Runway Canada winner; and his manager, Ali Lawee.

3—Eva Ta, development planner, and Graham Chalmers, co-owner, Davies Smith Developments, flank Orest Boszko, partner, contractor Boszko and Verity.

2

32 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

3

1

Casa Life Casa Life principal Robert Whitfield turned his Liberty Village showroom into a party palace studded with furniture prototypes and their designers. The level of buzz generated by each piece will help determine if he puts it into production.

2

1—Interiors and product designer Anwar Mekhayech, principal, the Design Agency, and fashion designer Shawn Hewson of Bustle Clothing.

2—Casa Life owner Robert Whitfield and Carmen Dragomir, principal designer, Lesqape.

3—Ally, a visual-arts student at NSCAD University, and brother Nicholas, entering Queen’s, check on the prototype couch by their architect-father, Raw Design principal Roland Rom Colthoff.

1

3 1

2

Savoia Canada High-end porcelain tile maker Savoia Canada welcomed friends to its new showroom, formerly occupied by Knoll, across from Toronto’s St. James Cathedral.

3

1—Piergiorgio Mazzetta, executive VP, Savoia Canada, and Graziano Verdi, president of the Italian parent company, Granitifiandre.

2—Karl Lohnes, decorating expert on CTV’s Canada AM; and caterer Massimo Capra, co-owner and chef at Mistura restaurant.

3—From Julia West Home: intern designer Sara Russell, designer Isabella Dabrowiecki, the eponymous founder, and design chief Doina Dule.

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JULY/AUGUST 2009 CANADIAN INTERIORS 33

Last Word

Works well with others At lunch with creative director – and collaborator nonpareil – Patrizia Moroso.

—By Shauna Levy

I discovered Moroso during my first visit to Milan’s i Saloni 10 years ago. As I squeezed through the throngs vying for a peak at a new furniture piece or a design superstar, I quickly caught on that Moroso was more than just another Italian sofa manufacturer. It was and is where trends begin, where designers are discovered, where the industry’s pulse is felt. And this is due to its creative director, Patrizia Moroso.

After this year’s fair, I meet with Patrizia in New York over lunch. She sits snugly between her publicist and Kim Beck, an artist who has just finished an installation in the Moroso SoHo showroom.

As they nod in agreement and pick from each other’s plates, the three women are more like family than colleagues. Exuding warmth, enthusiasm and passion, Patrizia tells me that fate has everything to do with her collaborations. “There is usually a sign.” she says simply.

Moroso the company had modest beginnings. In 1952, husband and wife Agostino and Diana Moroso set up a furniture studio

in Udine, Italy. Within 10 years, they grew into an industrialized company with 140 staff. During the recession of the 1980s, Patrizia was pulled out of university and put into the creative role, while her brother, Roberto, took over the finances. Patrizia focused on upping the design quotient, working with the likes of Italian designer Massimo Iosa Ghini and Japanese designer Toshiyuki Kita. In 1999, she hooked up with superstar designer Ron Arad and, shortly after, with Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola. (The relationship with Urquiola is “more like a friendship where we talk daily and make things together,” Patrizia says.)

In Milan this year, Moroso presented M’Afrique. Partly inspired by her Senegalese husband, Patrizia wanted to show the creativity of contemporary African culture, rather than the tragic stereotypes that are more often seen. The collection is a combination of products designed by such big names as Urquiola and Tord Boontje

At Milan’s i Saloni this past April, Moroso presented M’Afrique, a collection that includes products by such big names as Tord Boontje (Shadowy chair, at left) and Stephen Burks (armchairs, below), made by families in Dakar.

34 CANADIAN INTERIORS JULY/AUGUST 2009

– specifically for local production methods – and made by 20 families in Dakar; products inspired by Africa; and classic models reinterpreted in an African version.

This collaboration with local craftspeople demonstrates the integrity and innovation that Patrizia believes will enable Moroso to succeed within the new economic climate. “I try to make objects with a soul,” she explains. “You can only do this if the people around you have the same attitude.

Money isn’t the most important thing for me. When it is a true collaboration, and the intention is good, then money will arrive eventually.”

Before we get up from the table, I ask Patrizia where she sees herself 10 years from now. “Right here at this table,” she says with a laugh. “I’m happy with what I’m doing, so there’s really no reason to change.” c I

And the winners are...

Find out who’s won at the Best of Canada Design Awards Celebration, held at IIDEX/NeoCon Canada, on Friday, Sept. 25

12

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