2023
Canadian Architect
KINGSTON EAST COMMUNITY CENTRE, KINGSTON, ONTARIO 
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
+VG Architects worked closely with the City of Kingston, Ont., and its participating community groups to design the Kingston East Community Centre. The 22,000-square-foot, $12-million (US$8.82-million) project, the newest recreational centre in the city, was completed in July 2022 and marks an important step in Kingston’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. As Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson said at the official opening, the centre is “a state-of-the-art facility not only in the spaces that we can offer our community but in energy efficiency. This building is really setting the mark and the standard for what city facilities will be in the future. It also sets the standard for our community as a whole.”
“The is the first +VG Architects project with such a significant solar component. It’s certainly the most sustainable building the company has ever done,” says Project Architect Dan Wojcik.
Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
Text by David Lasker
Photography by David Lasker Photography
The official opening of the picturesque Shingle Style Oakville Coach House in 2022 marked the completion by +VG of the adaptive reuse of the Erchless Estate, a cultural heritage property designated under the Ontario Heritage Act as an intact surviving example of an estate developed by a wealthy settler family. This fine ensemble of historic buildings on an elevated natural embankment overlooking Lake Ontario, the mouth of Oakville Harbour, and Sixteen Mile Creek, comprises the Customs House (1856); the Italianate-style residence (1858), former home of six generations of the town’s founding Chisholm family and restored as the Oakville Museum by +VG in 1991; the Post Office (1835); and the Coach House (1901).
Canadian Interiors
GATES SWING OPEN: ERCHLESS ESTATE COACH HOUSE
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
Photography by David Lasker Photography
The official opening of the picturesque Shingle Style Oakville Coach House in 2022 marked the completion by +VG of the adaptive reuse of the Erchless Estate, a cultural heritage property designated under the Ontario Heritage Act as an intact surviving example of an estate developed by a wealthy settler family. This fine ensemble of historic buildings on an elevated natural embankment overlooking Lake Ontario, the mouth of Oakville Harbour, and Sixteen Mile Creek, comprises the Customs House (1856); the Italianate-style residence (1858), former home of six generations of the town’s founding Chisholm family and restored as the Oakville Museum by +VG in 1991; the Post Office (1835); and the Coach House (1901).
Designlines
PORT CREDIT HOUSE HONOURS OLD AND NEW
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
Rather than tear down a heritage Arts and Crafts bungalow on Hiawatha Parkway in the Toronto suburb of Port Credit and build a new, larger McMansion as is the norm, the client wanted to expand the house without violating its stylistic integrity or impacting upon the extensive mature landscape that includes a pond. They turned to +VG Architects Principal Chris Hall, who created a vertical addition.
Insauga
WALKING TOUR OF ERCHLESS ESTATE ABOUT THE ‘FOUNDATIONS’ OF OAKVILLE
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
Photography by David Lasker Photography
The official opening of the picturesque Shingle Style Oakville Coach House in 2022 marked the completion by +VG of the adaptive reuse of the Erchless Estate, a cultural heritage property designated under the Ontario Heritage Act as an intact surviving example of an estate developed by a wealthy settler family. This fine ensemble of historic buildings on an elevated natural embankment overlooking Lake Ontario, the mouth of Oakville Harbour, and Sixteen Mile Creek, comprises the Customs House (1856); the Italianate-style residence (1858), former home of six generations of the town’s founding Chisholm family and restored as the Oakville Museum by +VG in 1991; the Post Office (1835); and the Coach House (1901).
National Post
HOME DESIGN: MAKING AN OLD FAMILY HOME “RIGHT FOR A NEW GENERATION”
Client: FrankFranco Architects
FrankFranco Architects transformed a 3,800-square-foot Toronto ravine home to suit the next generation of homeowners. Situated on a wide lot in an established suburban neighborhood, the 30-year-old home underwent an extensive interior renovation. The update suits the new owners’ more-contemporary design aesthetic and captures views of the lush ravine at the rear. Francesco Di Sarra, Principal Architect at FrankFranco Architects, titled this project “Deja View” for the feeling of an experience that’s familiar yet shrouded in the mists of time.
Oakville Beaver
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY IN OAKVILLE
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
Photography by David Lasker Photography
The official opening of the picturesque Shingle Style Oakville Coach House in 2022 marked the completion by +VG of the adaptive reuse of the Erchless Estate, a cultural heritage property designated under the Ontario Heritage Act as an intact surviving example of an estate developed by a wealthy settler family. This fine ensemble of historic buildings on an elevated natural embankment overlooking Lake Ontario, the mouth of Oakville Harbour, and Sixteen Mile Creek, comprises the Customs House (1856); the Italianate-style residence (1858), former home of six generations of the town’s founding Chisholm family and restored as the Oakville Museum by +VG in 1991; the Post Office (1835); and the Coach House (1901).
Retrofit Home
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
The home renovation in St. Catharines, Ontario, by and for Paul Sapounzi, President and Managing Partner at +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.), is unusual in many respects. His family previously lived in a 5,000 sq ft house on an acre overlooking the Grand River in Cambridge; it had a very big footprint. The new, two-bedroom, carbon-neutral home is less than one-third the size and they love it. It measures 1,560 square feet over two floors and sits on 0.04 acres (50 feet by 35 feet). “My architecture firm designs big, beautiful houses, but I chose to live a more modest life with my family and it’s paying off,” he says.
The retrofit not only retains the 25 feet by 32 feet footprint of the 1911 cottage, but also its elevations and site plan. Demonstrating sensitivity to heritage context, its steel cladding and fastening details pay homage to what was the most important Canadian shipbuilding centre during the 19th century, located 20 minutes east of Niagara Falls.
On an ideological level, the project makes a polemical argument against the conspicuous consumption of McMansions and monster homes. On a personal level, the house is a remembrance of things past that makes a nostalgic yet contemporary, back-to-the-future statement about family and community.
Toronto Star
COUPLE WITH THREE KIDS AND EXPECTING ANOTHER WANTED SOMETHING DIFFERENT FROM THEIR HOME
Client: FrankFranco Architects
Casa Cascade is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project: On the outside, a 7,000-square-foot traditional limestone-clad house in a subdivision north of Toronto. Inside, an interior that was updated and made more functional in an environmentally responsible way without a major gut.
The Modernist renovation by Francesco Di Sarra, Principal Architect at FrankFranco Architects, based in Kleinburg, Ont., proved acceptable to the mass market: The client bought the residence for $3 million with the intention to renovate, spent $1 million on remodeling in 2019, then sold the house in 2022 for $7 million, making it the highest-priced listing in the area.
“This project is a case study in why a builder is not an architect,” Di Sarra says. Inside, “The spaces were devoid of any logic,” he adds, with redundant entries to rooms and a large lightwell cut-out in the second-storey hallway that made no sense because there was no skylight above it to draw light from. “The owner came to me, saying about the house, ‘What do I do with it?’ That was the exact sentence. They bought it with the intention to renovate.”
The extensive interior renovation included the relocation of a secondary stair, a sunroom expansion, reorganization of the interior spaces and an updated materials palette. In contrast to the white-and-chrome “before” interior, the makeover creates a relaxed atmosphere by introducing wood, warm metals and natural stones.
In its as-found state, the interior suffered from oppressive faux-Victorian ornament such as columned archways, fussy door-panel mouldings and, in the living room, incongruously oversize octagonal ceiling coffers.
Adjoining the house is a new pool house, Sinatra Cabana, so-named because it was inspired by the midcentury Modernist Palm Springs hideaway of Ol’ Blue Eyes. The clients, who often host summer gatherings, wanted a pool house reflecting their casual lifestyle. The building is used throughout the year because it also serves the tennis court, which converts to an ice surface that the clients’ children skate on all winter long. They use the cabana as the change room for all their outdoor activities.
Toronto Sun
Client: FrankFranco Architects
Here is a budget-sensitive renovation of a space-challenged, 110-year-old semi-detached house in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood.
She felt strongly about maintaining the traditional character of the home; he hoped to achieve a boldly modern aesthetic. To satisfy both halves of the client couple, the renovation preserves the Victorian façade that contributes to the charming period streetscape while adding a contrasting contemporary extension facing the rear laneway.
“There are very limited changes you can make to these homes,” advises Francesco Di Sarra, founder and Principal Architect at FrankFranco Architects, based in Kleinburg, Ont. His firm gutted all four levels of the narrow, 12-feet-wide residence.
The living room’s floating staircase exemplifies the stylish changes: Concealed LED cove lighting outlines the stairs’ zigzagging sculptural form. A frameless glass barrier acts as a safety guard without blocking light from entering the stairwell while eliminating the need for a balustrade and its attendant clutter of supporting balusters, a boon in such a close space. “It’s a simple, elemental solution,” he says of the glass wall.
SMALLER FOOTPRINT, BIGGER HEARTPRINT
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
The home renovation in St. Catharines, Ontario, by and for Paul Sapounzi, President and Managing Partner at +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.), is unusual in many respects. His family previously lived in a 5,000 sq ft house on an acre overlooking the Grand River in Cambridge; it had a very big footprint. The new, two-bedroom, carbon-neutral home is less than one-third the size and they love it. It measures 1,560 square feet over two floors and sits on 0.04 acres (50 feet by 35 feet). “My architecture firm designs big, beautiful houses, but I chose to live a more modest life with my family and it’s paying off,” he says.
The retrofit not only retains the 25 feet by 32 feet footprint of the 1911 cottage, but also its elevations and site plan. Demonstrating sensitivity to heritage context, its steel cladding and fastening details pay homage to what was the most important Canadian shipbuilding centre during the 19th century, located 20 minutes east of Niagara Falls.
On an ideological level, the project makes a polemical argument against the conspicuous consumption of McMansions and monster homes. On a personal level, the house is a remembrance of things past that makes a nostalgic yet contemporary, back-to-the-future statement about family and community.
2022
Architecture-Building
+VG ARCHITECTS UNDERTAKES THE ADAPTIVE REUSE OF HISTORIC NIAGARA PARKS POWER STATION
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Niagara Parks Power Station launched the modern electrical industrial era. This is where AC current was first generated and distributed over long distance on an energy grid at commercial scale using generators provided by George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla. +VG Architects restored it as a new iconic entertainment, education and tourism destination.
Architizer
ACUITY BRANDS FEATURED PRODUCT: PEERLESS LIGHTING INSTALLATION AND HILLSBURGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
+VG Architects wraps a new addition around a 19th-century farmhouse.
ROSEMOUNT PUBLIC LIBRARY, OTTAWA, CANADA
Client: +VG Architects
+VG Architects’s adaptive reuse transforms Ottawa’s last remaining Carnegie library into a more welcoming and inclusive destination.
Award
Client: +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Cover story: “For more than 50 years, +VG Architects has been making the impossible, possible.
Building
IN MEMORIAM: EBERHARD ZEIDLER’S ARCHITECTURE DEFINES THE TORONTO STYLE
Former client: Zeidler Partnership Architects
Text by David Lasker
“…when it comes to the astute mixing of uses — where a building contains more than one type of component, such as office, retail or housing — Zeidler created the archetypes: Eaton Centre (1979) and Queen’s Quay (1983). A 1986 readership survey by Progressive Architecture ranked the Eaton Centre among the “greatest architectural complexes in North America,” and declared Queen’s Quay among the “best restoration or adaptive re-use projects of the past five years.”
Canadian Interiors
GOOD GOVERNANCE EMDODIED: GREY COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
+VG Architects updates Grey County’s administration building, gathering previously dispersed services into an accessible, community-friendly hub.
Client: +VG Architects
Renovation, with Johnson Chou Design, of the restaurant and retail mall at historic Table Rock House, Niagara Falls, Ontario.
AN INSIDE JOB: KINGSTON PUMPHOUSE STEAM MUSEUM
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
Photography by David Lasker Photography
An expansion and interior renovation of the Kingston Pump House Steam Museum distinguishes between old and new while respecting the original structure’s Victorian industrial vernacular style.
Former client: Zeidler Partnership Architects
Text by David Lasker
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Zeidler’s autobiography, Buildings Cities Life, was published in 2013, and Canadian Interiors had the pleasure of attending the launch party. Below is the segment by David Lasker that appeared in our Who’s Who department of the November-December 2013 issue.
“Please bring a strong arm to take away your complimentary book,” said the invitation to the book launch of Buildings Cities Life, the massive, heavy autobiography of Eberhard Zeidler, architect of Toronto’s Eaton Centre and Queen’s Quay, Vancouver’s BC Place and many another important building here and abroad. The event was a joyous reunion for friends of the Zeidler clan, taking place as it did in daughter Christina’s hip Gladstone Hotel.”
Metropolis
NIAGARA FALLS POWER STATION IS NOW AN EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT DESTINATION
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Niagara Parks Power Station launched the modern electrical industrial era. This is where AC current was first generated and distributed over long distance on an energy grid at commercial scale using generators provided by George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla. +VG Architects restored it as a new iconic entertainment, education and tourism destination.
Mortarr
ACUITY BRANDS FEATURED PROJECT: PEERLESS LIGHTING INSTALLATION AT HILLSBURGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
+VG Architects wraps a new addition around a 19th-century farmhouse.
Municipal World
ONTARIO’S UNOFFICIAL MUNICIPAL ARCHITECT FOR 50 YEARS
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
David Lasker Communications created a full-page advertorial feature story in Municipal World to celebrate the 50th anniversary of +VG Architects.
Officeinsight
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Niagara Parks Power Station launched the modern electrical industrial era. This is where AC current was first generated and distributed over long distance on an energy grid at commercial scale using generators provided by George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla. +VG Architects restored it as a new iconic entertainment, education and tourism destination.
Retrofit
Client: +VG Architects
Cover story photography by David Lasker Photography
Niagara Parks Power Station launched the modern electrical industrial era. This is where AC current was first generated and distributed over long distance on an energy grid at commercial scale using generators provided by George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla. +VG Architects restored it as a new iconic entertainment, education and tourism destination.
Retrofit Home
Client: +VG Architects
Rather than tear down a heritage Arts and Crafts bungalow on Hiawatha Parkway in the Toronto suburb of Port Credit and build a new, larger McMansion as is the norm, the client wanted to expand the house without violating its stylistic integrity or impacting upon the extensive mature landscape that includes a pond. They turned to +VG Architects Principal Chris Hall, who created a vertical addition.
Revitalization
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Niagara Parks Power Station launched the modern electrical industrial era. This is where AC current was first generated and distributed over long distance on an energy grid at commercial scale using generators provided by George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla. +VG Architects restored it as a new iconic entertainment, education and tourism destination.
Toronto Star
TURNING TYPICAL LAKE HOME DESIGN ON ITS SIDE
Client: +VG Architects
This upscale +VG Architects cottage project links the exterior to the interior, visually and spatially.
MODERN RENO RESPECTS PORT CREDIT HOME’S 1950S COTTAGE CHARACTER
Client: +VG Architects
Rather than tear down a heritage Arts and Crafts bungalow on Hiawatha Parkway in the Toronto suburb of Port Credit and build a new, larger McMansion as is the norm, the client wanted to expand the house without violating its stylistic integrity or impacting upon the extensive mature landscape that includes a pond. They turned to +VG Architects Principal Chris Hall, who created a vertical addition.
Treehugger
NIAGARA FALLS POWER STATION IS RESTORED AND REPURPOSED
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Niagara Parks Power Station launched the modern electrical industrial era. This is where AC current was first generated and distributed over long distance on an energy grid at commercial scale using generators provided by George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla. +VG Architects restored it as a new iconic entertainment, education and tourism destination.
+VG ARCHITECTS UNDERTAKES THE ADAPTIVE REUSE OF HISTORIC NIAGARA PARKS POWER STATION
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
Niagara Parks Power Station launched the modern electrical industrial era. This is where AC current was first generated and distributed over long distance on an energy grid at commercial scale using generators provided by George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla. +VG Architects restored it as a new iconic entertainment, education and tourism destination.
2021
Building
KINGSTON PUMPHOUSE STEAM MUSEUM
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
Images by David Lasker Photography
+VG unveils a contextually attuned transformation of Kingston’s historic waterworks.
Canadian Interiors
BEAUTY IN CONTRAST: HILLSBURGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
Photography by David Lasker Photography
+VG Architects wraps a new addition around a 19th-century farmhouse.
COTTAGE DESIGN PRINCIPLES FROM A TO Z
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
+VG Principal Peter Berton offers some lessons for the lakeside.
RCYC ISLAND CLUBHOUSE: CLEAN SLATE
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
+VG Architects Principals Peter Berton and Chris Hall renovate the historic Toronto Island Royal Canadian Yacht Club Clubhouse.
Foodservice and Hospitality
TABLE ROCK HOUSE RESTAURANT, NIAGARA FALLS
Client: +VG Architects
At historic Table Rock House overlooking Niagara Falls, The Ventin Group Architects (+VG) and Johnson Chou Design create a destination restaurant evoking the iconic view.
Toronto Star
WITH ITS NEW RENO, RICHMOND HILL’S OBSERVATORY STILL SEEING STARS
Client: +VG Architects
Photography by David Lasker Photography
+VG Architects renovates the historic David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
2020
Azure
HOW GOOD DESIGN CAN HELP SCHOOLS SAFELY RE-OPEN
Client: +VG Architects
How can schools welcome students and teachers back? Through the inclusion of learning commons adaptable to all curricula. (The photo shows the soaring, 40-foot-high, wedge-shaped daylit atrium at +VG’s St. Mary’s High School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.)
Client: +VG Architects
Paul Sapounzi, President and Managing Partner at +VG, reveals how to make schools more versatile.
Building
+VG: ONTARIO’S UNOFFICIAL MUNICIPAL ARCHITECT
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
+VG has an unusual business model: designing public facilities for smaller municipalities, getting ratepayers on board, then securing provincial and federal aid to get the thing built.
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
To enable public schools to reopen safely during COVID, +VG reimagines the portable school classroom.
Canadian Architect
The Oomph Group, headed by Johanna Hoffmann, relaunches to deliver integrated marketing and business development services to architecture, engineering, planning and interior design firms.
Media contact: David Lasker Communications
BURLINGTON POA COURTHOUSE OFFERS DEVELOPMENT MODEL FOR CASH-STRAPPED MUNICIPALITIES
Client: +VG Architects
Images by David Lasker Photography
“We applied contextual inspirations to evoke the spirit of the place and imbue the facility with an imaginative sense of place and poetry that pays homage to the primeval forests, the lake and even the weather,” says Ed Bourdeau, Partner and Architectural Project Manager at +VG.
+VG ARCHITECTS RESTORES MIDCENTURY-MODERN COURTHOUSE IN HAMILTON
Client: +VG Architects
Images by David Lasker Photography
An iconic midcentury-modern heritage building in Hamilton, Ontario, has undergone an extensive revitalization that blends elements of the building’s proud heritage with new and modern amenities.
+VG ARCHITECTS RENOVATES THE PETERBOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
Client: +VG Architects
The renovation and addition to the main branch of the Public Library in Peterborough, Ontario, exemplifies an important trend in urban living, explains +VG’s Peter Berton, the project’s Partner-in-Charge. “It’s a very big thing. More than just a library with books and internet, this is a community hub.”
+VG ARCHITECTS RENOVATES BROCK UNIVERSITY’S GOODMAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Client: +VG Architects
The project will have a big impact on Goodman’s 2,900 undergrads and 520 graduate students, said Barry Wright, Interim Dean, when it launched. “This is about giving Goodman students a better advantage in launching their careers. Yes, the architecture will be beautiful, but importantly this project brings a new generation of teaching and learning facilities that are truly state-of-the-art.”
Canadian Interiors
A TANGIBLE CONNECTION: HOUSE ON HALIBURTON LAKE
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
This upscale +VG Architects cottage project links the exterior to the interior, visually and spatially.
Client: Stacklab
Stacklab works with regional Merino wool manufacturers to take surplus off-cut and end-of-bolt felted wool out of the waste stream and turn them into furniture.
Canadian Press
CANADIAN SCHOOLS FACE DAUNTING, UNIQUE REOPENING CHALLENGES DURING PANDEMIC
Client: +VG Architects
We arranged for Canadian Press Reporter Michelle McQuigge to interview +VG President and Managing Partner Paul Sapounzi about making schools safe during COVID. Her story appeared in dozens of newspapers across Canada including, as shown here, The Toronto Star.
Construction Links Network
+VG ARCHITECTS MANAGING PARTNER PAUL SAPOUNZI “ONTARIO’S MUNICIPAL ARCHITECT,” APPOINTED RAIC FELLOW
Client: +VG Architects
Our press release on +VG Managing Partner Paul Sapounzi’s appointment as Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada included the moniker “Ontario’s unofficial municipal architect.” The nickname, in full or shortened form, evidently appeals to editors.
Municipal World
THE NEW, COMMUNITY-FRIENDLY FACE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
Client: +VG Architects
“I call this a community-friendly police building.”—Chris C. Herridge, Chief of Police, St. Thomas, Ontario.
Officeinsight
CANADIAN MANUFACTURERS COPE WITH COVID-19
Clients: Nienkamper, Teknion
Text by David Lasker
How are Canadian contract manufacturers coping with COVID? Better than expected. We interviewed the presidents of three Toronto-area firms: ErgoCentric’s Terry Cassaday, Nienkamper’s Klaus Nienkamper and Teknion’s David Feldberg. They’ve found imaginative ways to turn the massive economic disruption to advantage, even having fun along the way.
Toronto Star
SEE MUSIC THE WAY THIS KING CITY ARTIST PERCEIVES IT AT THIS TORONTO GALLERY
Client: Gallery 133
For feature editors at mass-market publications, abstract painting isn’t necessarily the most appealing topic. But by creating a story hook about synesthesia, we made Ernestine Tahedl’s music-inspired canvasses “sexy.”
2019
Blue Line
A BUILDING SUITED TO THE CHANGING FACE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
Client: +VG Architects
Ontario’s new St. Thomas Police Service building depicts the evolving change in crime patterns and the trend to more community- and detainee-friendly policing
Building
IMPROVED PUBLIC REALM STARTS TO TAKE SHAPE AT UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR
Client: +VG Architects
To mark the University of Windsor’s 50th anniversary, the school engaged +VG to create a campus master plan with a vision for the next 50 years.
CAYMAN MARSHALL: LAKESIDE DISRUPTOR
Client: Cayman Marshall International Realty
Text by David Lasker
Move over, Toronto and Vancouver. Look to the wilds of Muskoka, where Cayman Marshall International Realty has created Canada’s latest real estate hothouse.
Canadian Architect
+VG ARCHITECTS COMPLETE FIRST PHASE OF U OF WINDSOR MASTER PLAN
Client: +VG Architects
To mark the University of Windsor’s 50th anniversary, the school engaged +VG to create a campus master plan for the Ontario institution with a vision for the next 50 years.
Canadian Interiors
Client: Cecconi Simone
Text by David Lasker
How Cecconi Simone creates a cohesive vision of condominium amenity spaces, from presentation centres to the finished product.
Interior Design
COMMUNITY AGENCY AND STACKLAB THINK GREEN FOR TORONTO’S DESIGN EXCHANGE MUSEUM
Client: Stacklab
Amid recycled wood chips and pine seedlings planted in glass vials strung from biodegradable polymer fishing line, winding maple plaques in Stacklab’s Wild Abode exhibit told the story of how natural wood makes its way into homes.
Officeinsight
Client: Integral Business Interiors
Text by David Lasker
Images by David Lasker Photography
Integral Business Interiors, a Toronto furniture dealership and workplace design firm, acts as a one-stop shop for startups making the transition from shared space in an incubator to their own office premises. “We mentor them once they’ve signed the lease,” says Integral co-founder Lorne Roberts.
Spaces4learning
BRINGING OUT THAT COMMUNITY FEEL
Client: +VG Architects
To mark the University of Windsor’s 50th anniversary, the school engaged +VG to create a campus master plan with a vision for the next 50 years. The plan aims to enrich the student and community experience, update the feel of the campus and make the university more competitive.
2018
Building
CREATING THE “FUTURE-PROOF” SCHOOL
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
“Even if we can’t see what’s coming, our schools are flexible enough to accommodate it.”
80,000 SQUARE FOOT THEATRE PLANNED FOR OAKVILLE’S SHERIDAN COLLEGE.
Client: +VG Architects
For Sheridan College, +VG designed a multipurpose hall with an orchestra pit and a tall fly tower, making it capable of hosting chamber music, dance, drama, musical theatre and orchestral performances as well as conference, film and lecture presentations.
Canadian Interiors
STACKLAB AND JEFF GOODMAN STUDIO LAUNCH MURA LOW TABLE
Client: Stacklab
The Mura table will be produced in a limited-edition run of 25 units, with a list price of $US 60,000. It will be available exclusively at Maison Gerard, a leading New York gallery specializing in fine furniture, lighting and objets d’art by 20th-century masters and emerging contemporary designers.
STACKLAB INSTALLATION A FINALIST FOR SBID INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EXCELLENCE AWARD
Client: Stacklab
Stacklab’s Wild Abode installation was a finalist in the 2018 SBID International Design Excellence Award in the Public Spaces category. The competition, based in London, England, ranks among the most prestigious interior design award events on the global design calendar.
A VISIT TO THE STUDIO OF FIG40: A DESIGN DUO TO WATCH
Client: Fig40
Text by David Lasker
Images by David Lasker Photography
By their works shall ye know them. If the Toronto-based industrial design firm Fig40 doesn’t sound familiar, many of the products they’ve designed for American and Canadian manufacturers are. To mention only their 2017 introductions: Nienkamper’s CernOffice casegoods collection, which won a Silver award at NeoCon 2017; the F4 conference chair for Stylex, that won Gold; and Tayco’s Switch systems furniture. This year will see the launch of Cache, a high-density stacking chair designed for Groupe Lacasse; desktop divider panels designed for Symmetry Office made of a felt lookalike – PET (polyethylene terephthalate recycled from soda bottles); and, at NeoCon, a table collection for Tuohy and two concrete lines for Nienkamper: Cern Accessories and the Perplex Bench.
2017
Building
Client: +VG Architects
Text by David Lasker
This past September, a cadre of suitably awed journalists saw the fruits of a 14-year, $128-million renovation of historic St. Michael’s Cathedral, the principal church of Canada’s largest English-speaking Catholic archdiocese, located at 65 Bond Street in the heart of downtown Toronto. Previously, the 169-year old monument, designed by Toronto architect William Thomas, seemed dark, drab and dreary. Now it is light, bright and resplendent.
NEW PROJECT TARGETS EMPTY-NESTER MARKET GAP
Client: Culver & Henderson Building Design
What’s an empty-nester baby boomer to do? There are plenty of options for group and assisted living. But up to now, downsizing boomers who want to continue to live independently and age gracefully in place in their own house have had little to choose from.
Canadian Architect
+VG ARCHITECTS CELEBRATES COMPLETED RENOVATION OF HISTORIC ST. MICHAEL’S CATHEDRAL
Client: +VG Architects
The project is part of a series of extensive renovations by +VG instigated by the Archdiocese of Toronto and further encouraged by Cardinal Thomas Collins, who arrived in 2007 and had a vision to develop the cathedral as a centre of evangelization. To that end, “The cathedral should be a thing of beauty,” says architect Terrance White, Partner-in-Charge of the +VG team at the cathedral, who was assisted by David Ecclestone, +VG Partner and project architect. As the lead consultant, they worked with the archdiocese to create the renovation strategy and hire subcontractors.
Canadian Interiors
Client: Cecconi Simone
Designed by Taylor Smyth Architects and Cecconi Simone Inc., Kishti on Meads is a luxury two-villa enclave on fashionable Meads Bay Beach in the Caribbean island of Anguilla. The villa with six main bedrooms has ensuite bathrooms offering garden or ocean views, rooftop and courtyard gardens, an infinity pool with ocean view beyond, and a hot tub.
The Globe and Mail
HOME-BUILDER’S DIP INTO THE RED A PAINFUL LESSON
Client: Derek Nicholson
The houses that contractor Derek Nicholson builds are not your everyday, cookie-cutter suburban homes.
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Client: Culver & Henderson Building Design
Text by David Lasker
“Taking the waters, right at home? According to David Lasker, hydrotherapy pools might be an answer to easing pain and wear-and-tear on the body as we age.”
David Lasker Communications
Banner photo: AM Studio booth, IIDEX 2008, Toronto, Ontario, copyright © David Lasker Photography.