INSTITUTIONAL
Casino de Montréal Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux Architectes / Provencher_Roy; Montreal
The swooping futuristic modernism of Expo ’67 lives on in the Casino de Montréal, which occupies the former France Pavilion. The casino recently underwent a sweeping renovation. To increase the gaming area and make the casino easier for visitors to navigate, the administrative offices were moved out of the building and into a newly built wing (wrapped in aluminum triangles). The previous multiplicity of entrances have given way to a single majestic front door. The oversize marquee framing the entry shimmers with lighting diffused through backlit perforated panels. From the lobby, visitors follow a walkway to the four gambling floors, each identified by a different colour. Lights play on the vertical lattice connecting the gaming levels, adding to the festive visitor experience. Bars and lounges are located in a central hub rising through the building. Stylized logos of the playing-card suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades) are worked into lampshades, upholstery, bar fronts and other surfaces.
INSTITUTIONAL This 2,400-square-foot multipurpose room is a simple brick-box addition to school for junior kindergarten through sixth grade. Inside, vertical slots of acoustic concrete block embellish concrete-block walls. Floors are surfaced in standard, foot-square vinyl composition tile; interior window surrounds are painted wood. Acoustic tile covers the ceiling. The designers worked magic on this no-frills materials palette. Random slots flank the ceiling lighting, the slot edges painted in bright colours. Multi-hued floor tiles reflect, in a higgledy-piggledy way, the ceiling plan. Windows big and small, some with clear glass and some with coloured film on the glass, dance haphazardly across the walls. Deep surrounds of colour framing the windows add depth to the wall. The windows and the frames cast coloured shadows onto the floor and walls that move with the sun’s position, making students aware of the passage of time. Indeed, the happy users have dubbed this space the “Rainbow Room.” Photos: top by Marc Cramer; bottom by Ben Rahn/A-Frame Studio
West Preparatory Junior Public School, Toronto Taylor Smyth Architects, Toronto
september/october 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 29