Glazing, greenery and carefully tuned acoustics reshape the rhythm of study at Conestoga College. Rethinking purpose, behaviour, and belonging in the modern workplace.
CANADIAN INTERIORS
SUPERIOR HEAT RESISTANCE A RECYCLED CORE
INLAYR® 3D DESIGN
ĒCLOS is the next-generation mineral surface developed with advanced layered design technology.
ZERO SILICA
FROM A FORTRESS TO A TOWN
What was once a citadel becomes a sequence of rooms that feel civic, its gravity softened by craft, with a brand of luxury that speaks sotto voce rather than shouting.
By Alison McNeil
FEWER GIMMICKS, MORE PURPOSE
For their own studio redesign, WZMH Architects sought to elevate mentorship, learning and purpose in a hybrid era. By Nicola Casciato
SURPRISES IN STORE
A strong expansion into Toronto shows Simons is betting on bricksand-mortar with its design-forward department stores.
By Matthew Hague
THE UPGRADE PATH
From a recast trade-school block to a mass-timber newcomer, these interventions show how robust material thinking and a dose of hospitality can turn campus real estate into high-function environments. By David Lasker
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As we are constantly reminded, the cyclical nature of real estate creates a roller coaster of peaks and plunges. After two years of positive net absorption and a vacancy rate that appears to have crested, Canada’s office market is edging out of triage and into something more composed, according to CBRE in its recent Canada Real Estate Market Outlook. In 2026, national absorption is forecast to reach 5.1 million square feet, more than double the long-term annual average, with downtown Toronto alone accounting for a disproportionate share of that momentum despite representing less than a fifth of inventory. Leasing velocity that re-emerged in Toronto late last year is expected to ripple outward, touching Vancouver, suburban Calgary, Kitchener-Waterloo and downtown Montréal with varying intensity.
Yet this is not a broad-based surge; it is a selective tightening. The vacancy gap between suburbs and downtowns is set to narrow as occupiers pursue buildings that shorten commutes and justify them with amenities, a recalibration captured in the now ubiquitous mandate to “earn the commute.” Trophy assets are absorbing first, while well-located vintage Class A stock is being reconsidered by nimble landlords prepared to reposition rather than retreat. With little meaningful new construction expected before 2030 and demolitions and conversions projected to outpace deliveries, the market’s stabilization rests less on exuberant demand than on disciplined supply, producing a leaner, more intentional office landscape.
Now, you’ll be forgiven if your eyes glazed over while reading that top-line summary. Trying to quantify factors like “limited new supply” and “flight to quality” is what industry prognosticators get paid to do and which leads to “transient noise and reactionary headlines,” as Marc Meehan, Managing Director of Research at CBRE, cleverly quipped. But in this case, something interesting is happening. The recent improvement in office leasing is being driven less by corporate growth than by return-to-office mandates, particularly among large institutions and government-related employers, and especially ones with fixed start dates, including a five-day-a-week requirement instituted for some Ontario government workers in January, six years after COVID-19 spawned the largest work-from-home experiment in human history. That experiment led to working lives in flux: according to StatsCan data, 30 per cent of Canadian workers are currently fully on-site; 22 per cent are fully remote; and the remaining 48 per cent have a “hybrid” schedule. For comparison’s sake, 40 per cent of Canadians worked at home at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, and in 2016, that figure was a mere seven per cent.
By Peter Sobchak
That’s a lot of change in a relatively short period of time, and as we know, rapid change typically creates problems. Heated conflicts around heavy-handed return-to-office mandates are the most visible, especially in unions. Many employees are returning to offices that have already been downsized and densified, often resulting in overcrowding and diminished workplace experience. This has created friction, particularly where the quality of the office no longer compensates for the loss of flexibility. And while hybrid has emerged as the dominant and (for now) preferred model, there’s plenty of research showing cracks and weaknesses in that model. Key trouble spots include collaboration, learning, onboarding and culture. At the same time, younger professionals are increasingly recognizing the career-development value of in-person work, especially for mentorship, informal learning, and visibility, even if they remain wary of hierarchical career paths and rigid attendance policies.
For designers, return-to-office mandates expose both an opportunity and a constraint. Employers are prioritizing environments that can justify the commute through quality, location and amenity, which in turn intensifies competition for premium space and premium design. But interior designers are also increasingly being asked to “solve” mandates through design, and when design is brought in after the mandate is already made, what power do designers really have, and what problem is design actually being asked to solve? At the same time, the persistence of hybrid patterns limits how fully square footage can be utilized, reinforcing the divide between high-performing buildings and commodity stock. Class B assets in particular face diminishing patience; waiting for demand to trickle down is no longer viable, and price competition via shorter lease terms may be the only pragmatic recourse. As the CBRE report alludes, mandates are less a blunt return to 2019 than a selective filter, amplifying the premium on design excellence while exposing the structural fragility of undifferentiated space.
Return-to-office mandates may be the accelerant in these goodnews stories about positive absorption numbers which, admittedly, translates to project commissions for designers, but they are far from uniform in effect and may obscure a more nuanced reality: inconsistent attendance can complicate culture-building and erode vibrancy, leaving many workplaces animated on Tuesdays and muted by Fridays. Mandates may fill desks, but they do not automatically animate space.
CanadianInteriors.com
Urban Sanctuary: 115 Larchmount
Superkül tapped into the manufacturing legacy of Toronto’s Leslieville district for a mixed-use building’s interiors.
Contemporary Functionality: La Maison Lavande
This new retail space by Lemay creates a sensory-driven shopping experience that services urban retail and e-commerce.
Contemporary Cabin: Sagamore North Cottage
Set against the beauty of the Canadian Shield, Akb Architects was inspired by the simple geometry of floating docks along Muskoka’s lakes.
Durability and Dignity: Forum
Asset X OCAD University
As part of the pilot project, five environmental design students were tasked with improving the practicality and comfort of double-occupancy student residences.
Natural Stone
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Designing for Wellness
By Vesna Plazacic
In 2021 Interior Designers of Canada (IDC) created the Innovation in Design Thinking: Student Competition to provide interior design students with a national platform to demonstrate the value of interior design and illustrate the positive impact design has on the users of the spaces, supported by evidence-based research. Students are encouraged to submit concepts or innovative processes at any scale or in any sector, and to communicate the design’s intended value to the people, business, or society at large.
Since launching the student competition five years ago, IDC has received nearly 100 submissions from students across the country, and 27 winners have been awarded. Over the years themes have emerged. Approximately 35 per cent of total submissions received focused on community and social connection, 16 per cent on projects designed to improve mental health concerns, another 16 per cent on health and wellness in the built environment and 13 per cent addressed issues of loneliness and isolation.
Last year’s winning student projects such as ‘Catalyst: A Digital Wellness and Learning Center’ by Lizette Bautista and ‘The Art of Void: Transcending from Loneliness to Solitude/ Ex Nihilo Omnia’ by Irina Alturmessova speak to the students’ search for community, healing and connection.
Focus on mental health
Natalie Badenduck is Associate Professor of Interior Design at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alta. She says students are exploring what their futures might hold in a changing world, and the meaning of design and society at large. For Mount Royal interior design students, topics of social connectedness and mental wellness are prominent, along with accessibility, maximalist and experiential design, sensorial design, biophilia, and international projects and perspectives.
“The mental health crisis is impacting post secondary institutions significantly,” says Badenduck. “It has definitely become a consideration in workloads for students.” She notes that while mental health and wellness may not be explicitly named in the curriculum the topic is covered in the WELL Building Standard. “When speaking about neurodiversity or designing for various user groups or specific experiences, it all relates tangentially to mental health and wellbeing even if we aren’t using those exact terms,” she says.
In a 2024 article titled “The Neuropsychology of Space: Designing Environments for Emotional Well-being” published on the website of American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the author, Charrisse Johnston says that interior design has a measurable impact on emotional well-being by shaping how the brain processes space across three levels: physical comfort, psychological safety, and emotional fulfillment. “Understanding the neuropsychological impacts of spatial experiences highlights the profound influence interior design has on emotions and mental well-being,” says Johnston. She notes that sensory conditions such as acoustics, lighting, temperature, smell, and material comfort directly influence stress, anxiety, focus, and mood, often subconsciously. Beyond physical comfort, spatial qualities like prospect and refuge, legibility, visibility, curved forms, and acoustic control suppor t psychological safety and social ease. At a higher level, interiors can foster emotional fulfillment and resilience through biophilic principles, fractal patterns, awe-inducing scale, and sensory richness, reinforcing that interior design meaningfully affects mental health and goes far beyond visual aesthetics. “By harnessing this knowledge, designers can create environments that are not only beautiful but also foster emotional resilience and mental wellness,” she says.
Natural Pod furniture at Creekside School, Red Deer, Alberta.
Impact of good design
Creating a space for students to develop some of these big, future defining ideas starts with the education institutions themselves. Bridgitte Alomes approaches design through the lens of biophilia, acknowledging that connecting students to nature is essential for their cognitive and emotional development. She is the CEO of Natural Pod, a school furniture manufacturer based in Burnaby, B.C. Natural Pod priories indoor air quality, avoiding materials common in ‘fast furniture’ like composite boards or toxic glues, and using FSC-certified plywood that is devoid of plastic components, off-gases, or formaldehyde.
She says the company opts out of ‘throw-away culture’ with a commitment to a lifetime warranty, building furniture guaranteed to last and is designed with multiple uses in mind to significantly reduce waste and to demonstrate tangible environmental stewardship to the students and educators who use their spaces. “True student-centered design must support the continuity of care, serving the needs of both young and older learners as they grow,” says Alomes.
Alomes believes the profession needs to move away from risk-averse, static environments toward spaces that support inquiry and can adapt to a learner’s needs. A 2018 article published on Global Furniture’s website titled “The Student Mental Health Crisis Calls for Better Campus Design” by Connie Tram argues that rising rates of student anxiety, loneliness, and other mental health challenges require post-secondary institutions to rethink campus design. Well-designed interiors on campus can support students’ emotional well-being by balancing opportunities for collaboration with spaces for privacy, rest, and recovery.
Badenduck says that design is personal and intimately connected to contemporary issues in our world, and the topics of mental health, loneliness, and creating community in student projects reflects what is happening in their worlds. “Instruction in design schools in which students are tasked with exploring their own creative processes and interests will often lead to individuals seeking inspiration or ideas from their own lived experiences,” she says. “Another reason that diverse representation is needed within the industry as well as the embrace of different perspectives.”
2025 Student Competition Excellence winner, ‘Catalyst: A Digital Wellness and Learning Centre’ by Lizette Bautista, British Columbia Institute of Technology (Burnaby, B.C.)
Since 1972, Interior Designers of Canada (IDC) has been the national advocacy association for the interior design profession, representing more than 5,000 interior design professionals. www.idcanada.org
Vesna Plazacic is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Interior Designers of Canada (IDC).
Design: Lisa Brooks Designs (Kitchen) and James Wheeler Designs (Interior)
Photographer: Emily Followill Photography
CAUGHT OUR EYE
Pearls of Memory In this room, Alina Tacmelova was aiming for hushed introspection: suspended pearl garlands created a diaphanous canopy that softened sightlines and acoustics alike. The invitation to touch and whisper added intimacy, though the scenography risked over-romanticizing participation. Still, its restrained material palette and spatial lightness lent the installation a contemplative clarity amid festival noise.
Soft Grid A textile installation by fibre artist Shao-Chi Lin was inspired by her time as artist-in-residence at Le Germain Hotel Toronto. The hotel and its surroundings were the muse: textile planes echoing the hotel district’s urban geometry in softened form; the colours a response to the lobby’s shifting light and circulation. While its hospitality-friendly restraint edges toward decor, the measured patterning still deftly reframes craft as architectural atmosphere.
La Dolce Design: Celebrating Italian Design, from Vintage Icons to Modern Masters
An exhibit that staged Italy’s design lineage as a composed conversation, pairing vintage heavyweights with contemporary works in a gallery layout that favoured continuity over spectacle. The dialogue between Scarpa-era restraint and newer expressive gestures was elegant, if occasionally reverential. Tradition here remained the dominant spatial language, with innovation carefully curated rather than allowed to disrupt the narrative.
All Light In a room of 15 Ontario-based artists and light designers for the All Light exhibition curated by Kate Tessier (Kilowatt Kate) and Common Good Studio, Steph Cloutier and Tessier’s Double Stack Lantern A commanded attention, its bamboo armature and hand-cast pulp diffuser on polyurethane moulds delivering a tactility rare in spec-driven lighting.
Shao-Chi Lin
Courtesy of Bonne Choice Caley Tessier, courtesy of Kilowatt
Welcome to Studio IDS
For the 2026 edition, IDS Toronto attempted to reframe the trade show as a “testing ground” where space itself became the primary medium and product took a supporting role. Not every attempt hit the mark, but overall, the result was a show that felt less like a marketplace and more like a trial run for contemporary design.
1 Atriani Interiors Expectations for a repeat tend to be high when you receive a booth design award, as this luxury furniture and home décor brand did last year with an IDS Best Booth Design – Judges’ Choice Award. While there wasn’t a repeat trophy for 2026, the booth didn’t disappoint. Conceived with designer Mila Yudina, it reads as a moody, gallery-like interior rather than a trade stand. Deepened palettes, layered textures and sculptural geometries framed the brand’s furniture within a choreographed spatial sequence. Positioned near the main stage, the installation invited slow looking amid the show’s bustle.
2 Ara Bed System | Cozey Continuing the brand’s strategy of bringing a considered, modular calm to the bedroom, this new system pairs clean-lined frames with softly upholstered headboards that lean more architectural than plush. Square and rounded profiles, discreet storage options, and tailored seams allow the bed to read as both backdrop and focal point. Removable fabric covers and restrained palettes give the system a quietly adaptable presence, designed to age gracefully across interiors.
3 TL-1 | Juba This Montréal studio founded by lighting designer Nick Trudel debuted its first product at IDS Toronto: a table lamp defined by material expression and lucid construction. A hand-formed cellulose acetate reflector crowns a cast mineral base and machined aluminum armature, shaping light through reflection rather than diffusion. The result is an atmospheric glow, with each piece revealing subtle variations that reward close viewing.
4 Colour Drench Collection | Hollis+Morris Prominently located at the top of the escalators upon entering IDS, the Toronto lighting studio dazzled with a new Colour Drench Collection, saturating its signature wood and metal forms in dense, customizable hues that allow underlying textures to quietly surface. The booth paired these chromatic pieces with the North American debut of Knit Series, a textile-based system first seen at Dutch Design Week and made in collaboration with Amsterdambased Byborre that softens illumination through woven volume.
5 Robie | Le Tenon et La Mortaise Exhibiting in the Studio North section, this Québec-based studio debuted a compact round dining table that distils their woodworking rigour into a quietly confident form. Crafted in solid North American hardwoods and finished with a matte, food-safe oil, the table balances Arts & Crafts integrity, mid-century warmth and Bauhaus restraint while scaled for space-conscious interiors.
Committed To the Bit
Originating in stand-up and improv comedy, the phrase “commit to the bit” means to follow a joke or idea to its full conclusion no matter how absurd or difficult it is to stay in character. Legends like Andy Kaufman, Chris Farley and Sacha Baron Cohen come to mind as doyens in this skill set.
6 Out of Office | Moooi Enclosed but intriguing, the booth was a collaboration with Ste Marie (and the name a tongue-in-cheek play on the three O’s in Moooi’s name) and reimagined the workplace as a sensorial escape rather than a site of productivity. No new products (Dear Ingo lighting and Fluid carpets) but a richly textured interior with surreal furnishings, layered surfaces and theatrical lighting were an invitation to linger.
7 Huddle Room | XFrame A New Zealand company, this version of the four-person Huddle room was designed by Modus ID and made in Ontario specifically for IDS to showcase North American applications. At its core XFrame was developed to create low carbon and circular interior fit-outs. The innovative 3D unitized plywood frames are the building blocks of a modular system to create spaces designed for change, reuse and performance.
A product booth at an interior design trade show, however, is not where one would expect to see this technique employed. Yet Coors Light crashed IDS Toronto with Home DeCoors, a knowingly absurd “furniture line” that turns beer cases into fully styled domestic props. Presented in a convincingly polished living room courtesy of digital media brand The Sorry Girls, the installation treated stacked packaging as modular seating, tables and media units, blurring brand activation and interior satire.
The joke landed not just because the detailing is straight-faced — posing an irreverent question about function and what really qualifies as furniture — but mainly thanks to the booth staff, who feel like they were plucked from a sketch comedy troupe. Try to trip them up on the “design” elements of the “furniture” and they had a believable answer that made perfect sense in the context of a design trade show, the kind of place where pretension is easily saturated and in need of a good takedown. Cheers to Molson Coors: we needed a good laugh.
By Peter Sobchak
The Genie is Out
Artificial intelligence may be omnipresent in design now, but a counterpull toward the tactility and irregularity of handmade is still strong. Heimtextil 2026 leaned into this productive tension in many places throughout the January show, reframing high-tech and craftsmanship not as opposites, but as collaborative forces unlocking new creative perspectives.
“Artificial intelligence is already part of economic reality, as a creative partner for design concepts and material visualisations, and as an efficient tool for data migration, day-to-day workflows and personalized customer engagement,” said Olaf Schmidt, vice president Textiles & Textile Technologies at Heimtextil. “Our aim is to make these concrete applications tangible and actionable for the industry.”
They certainly gave it the “college try,” if the college was based in Silicon Valley. Employing the Italian outfit Alcova (a growing off-site powerhouse of ideas during Salone del Mobile.Milano) to position Heimtextil’s trends report for 2026-27, Craft is a verb became the banner under which future-facing design was explored and where AI and craftsmanship actively inform each other rather than compete. The objective was to translate technological advancement into tangible, human-centred textile applications, while reinforcing sustainability, experimentation and market relevance. By foregrounding process over nostalgia,
the theme tried to guide tradeshow visitors toward adaptive, project-driven solutions for a variety of interiors sectors including hospitality and contract.
Given all the talk about artificial intelligence, I decided to go straight to the source and ask the elephant in the room — AI itself, in the form of ChatGPT — what it thought about how AI, in Schmidt’s own words, “will change the textile industry and, in combination with craftsmanship, opens up new perspectives,” and hopefully probe beyond the surface narrative of Craft is a verb and into AI’s real impact on textile design.
Canadian Interiors: Alcova frames AI as a collaborator rather than a threat. But where, in practice, do you believe creative authorship still firmly belongs to the human?
ChatGPT: Authorship remains human because AI doesn’t choose—it predicts. What we bring is intention: deciding when to pause, distort, contradict or abandon a result altogether. The intelligence of the hand, of lived experience and material resistance, is what turns possibility into meaning. AI can extend a gesture, but it cannot assign value or responsibility to it.
1 Alcova x Heimtextil, images created using ChatGPT 4.0, with various prompts revolving around this year’s trend directions. 2 Emma Terweduwe, Beyond Bold, Sunset coll GRID II
3 Aliki van der Kruijs and Jos Klarenbeek, Kadans 2.0. A textile sea archive.
CI: Is the rise of the “techno-craftsman” — a term Alcova repeatedly references — a genuine expansion of craft, or an admission that traditional skills must now be mediated by code to remain viable?
ChatGPT: We don’t see techno-craft as a concession, but as an evolution. Craft has always absorbed new tools — from looms to computers — and survived by doing so critically. Today’s techno-craftsperson doesn’t dilute skill through code; they appropriate it, bending digital tools until they become embodied, intuitive and material again.
CI: Many of the trends celebrate visible irregularity and imperfection. Are these authentic outcomes of process, or carefully curated aesthetics responding to AI fatigue?
ChatGPT: The irregularity we’re seeing isn’t decorative camouflage for AI fatigue. It’s the residue of real processes: translation across media; friction between systems; and moments where algorithms fail and humans intervene. These traces matter because they record time, labour and uncertainty, rather than smoothing them away.
CI: As AI increasingly streamlines design and production, what risks do you see to material intuition, tacit knowledge and slow learning within textile culture?
ChatGPT: The danger isn’t speed itself, but disembodiment. When creativity becomes frictionless, we lose material intuition, the kind built through repetition, error and touch. That’s why the report insists on keeping craft active, not nostalgic: as a way of protecting slow knowledge inside an accelerated system.
CI: If AI can already anticipate trends, generate patterns and optimize materials, what is the next frontier where human judgment remains irreplaceable in textile design?
ChatGPT: Human judgment lives in contradiction: knowing when not to optimize, when to accept discomfort, when to privilege emotion over efficiency. AI orders possibilities, but it cannot take a position. The future of textile design depends on designers willing to make those choices visible—and stand behind them.
4 Jonas Hejduk, Crash. 5 Alcova x Heimtextil, images created using ChatGPT 4.0, with various prompts revolving around this year’s trend directions. 6 Stefania Ruggiero, Ember rug, kilim technique, Delvis (Un)limited, 2024. 7 Sonia Górecka, screenshot from Unreal Engine, depicting her textile project ‘Slavic Doodles.’
What was once a citadel becomes a sequence of rooms that feel civic, its gravity softened by craft, with a brand of luxury that speaks sotto voce rather than shouting.
Many companies are facing the same set of issues today when it comes to office space: how to downsize their footprint; attract their teams back to the office; create a space that appeals to new employees and entice new clients; and design an office that reflects both their brand and their culture? Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP was no exception. In moving into a 40,000-sq.ft. former bank in Palo Alto, across the street from Stanford University and nestled in a lush California landscape, they were asking their team members to leave the comforts of home and come into a standalone building that some called a “Fortress in the Forest.” The space they were moving to required team members to go to smaller offices, and for a group of high-powered lawyers this is a tough ask.
To avoid “dictating from above,” DIALOG conducted the usual programming practices of engagement, surveys, workshops and
visioning sessions, yielding a standard program and plan. Yet the “fortress” motif remained omnipresent, evoking notions of permanence, trust and strength: a high-walled bastion of safety and security. But that wasn’t enough. The design team dove deeper into the client’s aspirations, which led to a more layered brief. We were asked to create a design vision that was connected, broke down “walls” with offices acting like little apartments that look over open gathering space, similar to a European city.
Our new concept evolved into “From a Fortress to a Town,” tapping into the urbanization concept about how locations evolve over time. The fortress-to-town concept transforms traditional, isolated corporate headquarters — and corporations themselves — into open, community-oriented hubs, shifting from a “stronghold” mentality of exclusivity, security and rigid structures to a “town” model focusing on collaboration, transparency and human-centric design.
The Plan Parti
We organized the program and plan parti around this fortress-totown idea and envisioned how each space would be designed as if glimpsed through the feelings of different time periods.
GATEHOUSE AS RECEPTION: We wanted the arrival experience to start the story and were inspired by the idea of layers of time seen through construction. It begins with a stone gatehouse and then veiling it in oak panels, furnishing and art. Key to our design expression was the reveal of the foundation behind oak panels, as well as a polished-versus-rough effect on the reception desk, and a light fixture resembling the geometry of shields, conjuring the fortress motif.
HEARTH AS SOCIAL LOUNGE: At the heart of any fortress is the hearth space, the internal social square. Intended as the most casual of the amenity squares, here it has the roughest construction ethos of exposed beams, limestone floors, and simple furniture. A long harvest table anchors the space and carries Pillsbury’s ethos of “everyone has a seat at the table.” Further seating choices and postures are provided at the “Cozy” where pivoting lounge chairs draw focus to the fireplace and media screen. The “Snug” saturated in rich moss green and decorated with whimsical animal artwork
(reminding team members to not take it too seriously) is an option for more intimate chats and private time.
GARDEN TERRACE AS LIBRARY: Intended as a space for quiet work and at the centre of the library plan is a long table surrounded by Pillsbury’s law book collection. Chairs are placed four feet apart and high backed to give a sense of privacy and focus. Plants give users the feeling of being in a garden while also acting as a visual buffer to the legal assistants beyond. A long linear sofa allows for a different work posture while the Garden can provide space for town halls and presentations, giving ample room for group events.
RAMPART AS COFFEE POINT: We used a rampart — a defensive wall of a castle or city — as a metaphor for the litigations team’s small town square. This team works late into the night, often on very intense cases. We wanted to provide them with a space where they converge to do battle. Deeply entrenched in Pillsbury’s culture is their love of games, and the Scrabble board is a nod to that.
GREAT HALL AS CONFERENCE ROOM: When approaching the “gatehouse,” team members and guests get a glimpse into the conference room, which we imagined as an Elizabethan Great Hall. Adaptable for
various configurations, including classroom, conference, and standing, the Great Hall can host up to 100 people in a lecture layout. Extra furniture is stored behind concealed doors in the panelling (all fortresses need secret rooms). While its panelled effect is rooted in the past, state-of-the-art technology including embedded floor plugs for devices, AV equipment ,and the long media screen are integrated.
GALLERY AS PRE-FUNCTION: This space acts as a pre-function area for client-facing events. Leaning into DIALOG’s experience in hospitality, guests are greeted by a travertine offering table supported by millwork to serve food and beverages; flooring switches from stone to herringbone wood; and the main feature is a meandering serpentine sofa placed over a grand carpet and surrounded by various-sized meeting spaces. The overall base palette of oak and limestone is layered with tapestry, velvets, leather, and metals.
SALON AS GUEST LOUNGE: Inspired by the notion of a Georgian manor house salon, this chapter of the narrative is influenced by refined panelling, soft arches, bookshelves, a feature hearth, and inviting furnishings. The focal points of this room are threefold: the fireplace wall creates a visual focus for gathering; the self-service counter-height coffee zone becomes a place for exchange; and the view beyond to the beautiful Palo Alto landscape encourages contemplation.
PRIVY CHAMBER AS BOARDROOM: The apex of the guest journey is reached in the privy chamber, the inner sanctum of the guest experience: the boardroom, where Pillsbury’s major decisions are made. High-backed chairs ring a rounded-edge boardroom table that discreetly supports device plug-in and state-of-the-art AV.
Pillsbury is a case study into where we believe the future of the workplace is going. No longer about desks and chairs, it has evolved into a series of bespoke-tailored amenity spaces which consider both the needs and the aspirations of the organization. The beauty of the fortress-to-town concept was that it allowed us to open multiple possibilities which are understandable by the user. We are in a post-COVID state of evolution in how we exchange goods and ideas, coupled with new communication technologies approaching at an uncomfortable speed. Yet the truth of humans’ need to gather remains. The next workplace we design will follow the same intense concept development, but if we are good at our job, it will be completely different and tailored to our client’s own story. We won’t be seeking a simple answer; we will be seeking beauty in the complexity of how we evolve.
Alison McNeil is a designer, futurist, and partner at DIALOG.
By Nicola Casciato
This spread At WZMH Architects’ Toronto studio, a 30-year tenure at 95 St. Clair Avenue West was due for a comprehensive redesign. Nearly three-quarters of the 15th floor is reworked around an open central lounge that captures panoramic city views and anchors daily life. East and west studios flex for project work, while an expanded kitchen and servery heighten hospitality. Hoteling desks and a dedicated R&D lab signal a practice attuned to experimentation and change.
Fewer Gimmicks, More Purpose
For their own studio redesign, WZMH Architects sought to elevate mentorship, learning and purpose in a hybrid era.
Today, designers are often asked to solve the return-to-office conundrum with design. Design can help, but it has limits, for example you can’t design your way out of an employer trust problem. If people don’t believe in your leadership, a nicer lounge won’t fix it. What design can do is reduce return-to-office friction, support better behaviour and make the reasons to come to work feel purposeful. We want design to pull people in, not push them away.
The goal for WZMH Architects’ comprehensive studio redesign was to create a destination, not just more desks, and turn the office into an experience, not just a place.
We stopped talking about trying to make it “better than home,” because home generally wins. Instead, we sought to make the office different in the ways that matters to us: more collective; more high-performing; and more mentorship-rich. The question
wasn’t how to make it better than home; it was “What do you get in the office that you can’t get on a video call?”
As such, we identified several areas where design could help prioritize and support an enriching experience. First: learning through osmosis. In a studio, we believe growth occurs in the in-between: overhearing how someone solves a problem; seeing a sketch evolve; watching someone redline a drawing; looking at a model; watching and listening to a critique. Hybrid work can starve that, so we designed the studio not as a sea of identical workstations, but as a place where sightlines and adjacencies keep you close to the work, close to your mentors, and close to people who may have already solved the problem you’re trying to solve.
The goal wasn’t to create constant interaction; it was proximity to experience and intelligence, and studio visibility to spur
unmistakably
friendly competition and where seeing great work nearby raises the bar in terms of craft, curiosity, and momentum.
Second: mentorship and structured learning. If we are asking people to come to work, the office must give them something a home office can’t: access to people, perspective, experience, and growth in real time, such as an apprenticeship. That’s why we created the WZMH Academy space, which supports formal lectures, internal reviews, town halls and office social events where you get to interact with your mentors. In the past six months alone, we hosted four lectures from municipal and industry leaders and professionals.
Third: create space for innovation. To this end, we built the Sparkbird Lab as an anchor for experimentation, prototyping, model work, demonstrations, and our roaming robot. We want to celebrate innovation and make it interactive, so we embedded it into the everyday life of the studio in the hopes that it becomes habit and inspires.
We also designed for the hybrid reality, because attendance is unpredictable. We planned for flexibility and spaces that can transform: a materials library that can be used for informal meetings; soft seating spaces that can be used for client meetings when the studio has quiet days; and our Academy space which functions as our main lobby and is constantly used for quick espresso breaks in the morning and at lunchtime. We planned for quiet spaces for focus, and our conference rooms have good acoustic and AV systems to support those attending remotely.
Finally, purpose and belonging. We felt that values can’t just be something we talk about, because employees see through that. We keep asking ourselves: did our investment in the space demonstrate what we care about? We think so. It’s not perfect, but we’re already planning for phase two, and we’re glad we built in enough flexibility and technology to adjust.
Nicola Casciato, OAA, FRAIC, is a principal at WZMH Architects.
This spread Within WZMH Architects’ renewed studio, heritage is handled with a collector’s eye and a modernist’s restraint. Original seating by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier sits near a black porcelain feature wall that nods to the Barcelona Pavilion. Extruded aluminum panels introduce a precise, high-tech counterpoint, and adaptable furnishings allow the material dialogue to remain both forward-looking and
house in tone.
By David Lasker
The PathUpgrade
From a recast trade-school block to a masstimber newcomer, these interventions show how precision moves, robust material thinking and a dose of hospitality can turn campus real estate into high-function environments.
Conestoga College offers career-related, skills-oriented programs to 26,000 students in Ontario, mostly at its primary Doon Campus in Kitchener, Ont. Despite the provincial government’s reduced funding for colleges in recent years, Conestoga has thrived. Herewith, a look at three new renovation projects there: the School of Business by Gow Hastings Architects and 4B Creative Industries by Cornerstone Architecture at Doon, and 1 Young by Dfy Studio at the downtown Kitchener campus.
School of Business
Toronto-based Gow Hastings Architects (GH) has worked on nearly 20 projects for the College since 2016. “We’ve put our stamp on the Doon campus,” says associate Stephan Wenzel. For the School of Business, the before-and-after contrast for the renovation of the campus’s existing A-Wing, originally a trade school, could hardly be starker. A sprawling drab rectangle with cinderblock interiors, a nearly invisible entrance, and a windowless brick façade denying views out to the woodlot greenery across the roadway, it had the air of a penal institution. “No windows is a problem for a healthy learning environment, which should inspire students,” says Wenzel.
“Previous generations would have been more inclined to demolish a building this old that had reached the end of its useful life,” says partner Philip Hastings. “But we like to demonstrate in these projects that repurposing an existing structure, even one that was never great in the first place, can be as good as a new building or even better because you’re using the energy that was embedded into the existing material.”
GH wanted its redesign to create an identity for the school, positioning it as forward-thinking and boasting state-of-the-art technology. “The main design inspiration for this project was the woodlot,” says Wenzel. The renovation stressed transparency inside and out. GH demolished the existing block and brick walls.
The recladding maximized views from the new classrooms and office space to the woodlot, and visibility from corridors into classrooms, adding a sense of communal buzz.
Besides opening up the façade with expansive glazing, GH introduced a signature origami-like rhythmic motif of alternating mirror-andwhite pleated Alpolic aluminum-composite panels. “It’s just a repeated fold,” says Wenzel. “Once they made one module, they could fabricate the rest in a cost-effective manner.” The reflected woodlot image changes throughout the day and as one walks along the façade.
A new canopy sheltering the much-enlarged main entrance projects nearly to the edge of the sidewalk, acting as an architectural wayfinding device signifying not only the building entrance, but also bestowing a sense of arrival on the bus stop for this part of the campus (while offering rain shelter for bus users). Overhead, the canopy’s wood soffit and ceiling lighting continue to the interior, drawing visitors inside.
GH aspired to enable a new kind of learning by developing what they dub flexible active classrooms to serve as a prototype for the college. There are also traditional lecture-style classrooms and computer labs. The active classrooms are arrayed along the building’s woodlot-facing wall and have desks and tables on casters to make the rooms easily reconfigurable for non-standard layouts such as seating in the round facing a centrally located lecturer. To boost flexibility in furniture placement, the rooms were fitted with custom brackets for wire management.
An unusual touch is the floating ribbon of whiteboards wrapping the active classroom perimeter, with generous gaps to permit views out and curves to soften the corners of the room. “Rather than the traditional eight- or 16-ft. framed whiteboard, we wanted to maximize the writable surface with a new typology of whiteboard,” says Wenzel.
Wenzel explained another theme in their design concept. “The corridor is not just a place of circulation.” Students spending time
This spread A former 1970s manufacturing shell is recast as a luminous home for the School of Business at Conestoga College’s Doon Campus. A fully glazed curtain wall and angled mirrored panels pull forest and sky deep into the plan, while 18-ft. ceilings anchor flexible active-learning classrooms beneath a sculptural acoustic system. Thickened corridors double as informal meeting niches, and an open office framework trades cellular rooms for panoramic pond views, touchdown benches and a quietly confident reception.
between classes need somewhere to perch and work or socialize. GH provided touchdown niches with built-in tables and upholstered benches where main corridors intersect. Cutout patterns in the linoleum flooring demarcate the niches, their backs bathed in a soothing green from cove lighting in the ceiling, evoking the woodlot. “These buildings are really deep, so often you don’t get a lot of natural light,” says design director Jim Burkitt. “The idea was to bring biophilia into the space with the soft greens and the pebblelike elements in the carpet tile,” adds partner Valerie Gow.
GH brought the pleated-façade motif inside, playing with it at different scales and using different materials. These include CNC-cut PET-felt acoustic panels on accent walls, and a graphic film on exterior windows to prevent bird strikes and on interior windows to give partial privacy to classrooms and office spaces. In the active classrooms, the pleat theme recurs as articulated, kite-like acoustic ceilings with seamless, butt-joined planes. “We wanted to showcase the ceilings to say that something special is going on in these classrooms,” says Burkitt. Gow added, “In so many projects, the ceiling is often the forgotten plane. In our office, we always try to look at what can be done with it.”
4B Creative Industries
As the name suggests, 4B Creative Industries by Cornerstone Architecture, based in London, Ont., is a renovation of office space previously on the fourth floor of the Doon Campus’s B Building. The budget for the 14,000-sq.-ft. project to house the department’s 300 students and staff was $2.5 million.
The School includes the Visual Merchandising Arts studio, which boasts a maker space for prop-building; a display cabinet for testing storefront designs; a Unistrut grid system suspended from the ceiling for hanging displays and an interior decorating studio stocked with industry samples. There are two Cintiq labs for students in the gaming and animation industries (Wacom Cintiq
tablets are interactive pen displays); FM radio station 88.3 CJIQ; internet-streaming station Q2 and a community TV station for broadcasting and journalism students.
The space features generous windows with views of the central campus. To minimize obstructions, Cornerstone removed existing fire separations and dropped ceilings to maximize height and attain “the exposed industrial-design studio look that the client was after,” says Cornerstone partner Ryan Ollson. Openings were inserted into the load-bearing wall to bring shared daylight into the classrooms “and put on display the cool creative work going on there,” he says.
The core design concept was to “optimize the use of the space and create different finishes and ceiling heights to accommodate the program.” These variables, in turn, act as wayfinding devices. For example, a continuous ceiling strip incorporating lighting and Western hemlock slats with acoustic backing divides the space longitudinally between classrooms and collaboration space. Underfoot, a ribbon of polished concrete butts against the collaboration area’s carpet tile.
The collaboration space has bookable meeting pods, biophilic greenery and clusters of varied seating configurations. Overhead, suspended squares formed by linear lighting add visual rhythm to the space while defining seating zones. Acoustic panels between the open-web steel joists on the sloped ceiling sector above the win-
This spread 4B Creative Industries unfolds as a studio-forward environment stitched together by a central circulation spine and shared collaboration lounge. Glass screens slice into concrete block walls to borrow daylight and frame student work, while exposed structure and services lend an industrious candour. Cintiq labs, a broadcasting studio and flexible classrooms orbit bookable pods, with colour and graphic wayfinding reinforcing a confident, workshop-inflected identity.
dows, and suspended felt baffles above the collaboration pods, attenuate noise. For the code-mandated vision strip fronting windowed collaboration rooms, Cornerstone developed a graphic pattern derived from the wood ceiling slats.
Classroom doors are recessed to prevent their swing from interfering with corridor circulation. Signage combining a unique colour and word identifier is mounted on corners formed where the corridor meets the recessed classroom entries. Signage hues fulfill accessibility requirements for contrast against the dark wall, enabling visually impaired users to identify entrances, where seven mission-statement “i” words — imagine, immerse, innovate, inspire, etc. — appear sequentially on vertically rotated, LED-backlit acrylic panels.
1 Young
1 Young by Kitchener-based Dfy Studio occupies 18,000 square feet at, unsurprisingly, 1 Young Street, a five-storey structure with a claim-to-fame as the region’s first new mass-timber building. Rather than housing a single faculty, it offers programs from Conestoga College’s schools of Applied Computer Science & Information Technology, Workforce Development, and Creative Industries.
Mass-timber construction may be green and virtuous, but its characteristic stubby-columned floorplate can prove daunting to the interior designer, as Dfy Studio founder and creative director Adah Noelting recounts. “Mass timber construction introduced stringent building-code requirements. Meeting fire and egress stan-
dards without compromising the building’s warmth requires close collaboration with engineers and regulatory bodies. “
She left ceilings bare to showcase their warm wood grain, and met with the engineers to lay out orderly paths, instead of the usual tangle, for exposed pipes and conduits running just below the ceilings. Seeking alternative surfaces for sound absorption, Noelting introduced acoustically wrapped wall segments (some doubling as chair rails), upholstered furniture, carpet tile and routed mechanical systems through corridors instead of classrooms.
Notwithstanding her ambivalence toward timber columns, she added, “The design celebrates them.” Rather than attempting to conceal the columns under drywall bulkheads, she left them at once exposed and highlighted using custom reveal detailing. Classrooms — some accommodating up to 45 students — had to be carefully integrated into a column-heavy layout with floor-toceiling windows that conflicted with projection needs. The solution: custom automated blinds that preserve the open feel while controlling light and glare.
“We have different tiers of space in the building,” she says, ranging from small and large classrooms and open collaboration zones to meeting rooms for private group work, quiet study areas, and small-group quiet collaboration rooms. “The building itself is rectilinear, so we softened up the inside by introducing curves, from fabric patterns to furniture with curved edges.” Then there’s fun
This spread At 1 Young Street, a five-storey mass timber structure is reimagined as a light-suffused student enclave that honours its grain and gravity. Exposed columns and raw ceilings are framed with precise reveals, while acoustically wrapped walls and carpet tile temper the resonance. Automated blinds reconcile floor-to-ceiling glazing with digital teaching. Upper levels unfold into collaborative lounges and a planted social hub, where bar-height counters and layered LED lighting animate the skyline.
lighting such as malleable LED tube lights bent into curves to resemble neon signage. “It’s modern and exciting for the students to have something like that in their spaces.”
The top-floor student lounge boasts custom benches surrounding large planters with trees, bar-height tables along windows framing skyline views, and nature-patterned window film applications inspired by greenery in Victoria Park at street level. “The whole floor was based around collaboration and a calming social environment,” says Noelting.
If the study carrels evoke restaurant banquette booths, the resemblance is intentional. “We love to integrate a bit of hospitality into our institutional and commercial design because if people aren’t working at home, they want to work or meet their friends in a café. So why not bring that environment to them?”
By Matthew Hague
Surprises in Store
A strong expansion into Toronto shows Simons is betting on bricksand-mortar with its design-forward department stores.
Canada’s retail landscape is dotted with the skeletons of shuttered department stores. Sears? Target? Gone. At Yorkdale Shopping Centre, one of Toronto’s busiest malls, Nordstrom sat empty for more than a year after the retailer filed for creditor protection in 2023. The nearby Hudson’s Bay store closed less than two years later, joining a long list of brick-and-mortar shops that could not survive in the age of online shopping.
It might seem like a big risk, then, for La Maison Simons (usually just called Simons) to take over not just one, but two failed Nordstrom spaces: the first at Yorkdale, the second at CF Toronto Eaton Centre. In total, the Québec-based retailer has recently spent some $75 million outfitting the two new locations — its first two in Toronto — hoping the outposts will boost the chain’s annual sales by 15 per cent, from $565 million to $650 million.
At Yorkdale, while bits of the original Nordstrom space remains — including its white terrazzo floors and soaring ceilings — the vibe is quite different. Whereas Nordstrom was understated, with
sparse clothing displays scattered across a wide-open sales floor, Simons is more energetic. An array of colours marks the different departments, which are segmented with tall display shelves brimming with clothes. There are also unexpected hits of art throughout, including playful Lego sculptures by Toronto artist Raymond Girard shaped like architectural models, and paintings by Montréal’s Kathleen Finlay that resemble dreamy summer landscapes.
It’s an aesthetic that speaks to optimism, and maybe it’s warranted. If Simons succeeds where others have not, it may be because of its shrewd approach to business. Unlike many other department stores, Simons maintains a tight, deliberate focus on fashion, without cluttering its offerings with appliances, mattresses, electronics and other items common to sell-it-all retailers such as The Bay or Sears.
Much of the fashion is proprietary. While Simons sells an array of familiar clothing brands — Lacoste, Erdem, Rick Owens, Saint Laurent — it also has its own popular house labels, each focused on a different demographic. Twik caters to women under 25, Contempo-
spread
a fluid,
interior landscape. Circulation
and
guiding shoppers through boutique-scaled zones under a calibrated wash of light. Material and lighting strategies evoke cycles of growth and movement, while digital installations and layered displays animate thresholds. The central escalator acts as a vertical anchor, tying together an atmosphere that feels warm and quietly kinetic.
raine to career-focused women, and Le 31 to sporty men. For fans of these brands, they make Simons a recurring destination.
Simons has also historically taken a conservative approach to expansion. Founded in 1840 in Québec City by John Simons, the son of Scottish immigrants, the company is still owned by his descendants. It didn’t venture outside Québec City until 1999, when it launched stores in Montréal and Sherbrooke. The first location outside La Belle Province came in 2012 at Alberta’s West Edmonton Mall. Today, including Yorkdale and the Eaton Centre, there are only 19 Simons stores. By comparison, The Bay once operated more than 80 locations. Target opened and then closed a whopping 133 Canadian stores within five years, expanding too much too quickly.
Also core to Simons’ success: interior design. While each store is different, the chain’s interiors are generally inviting, fun and interesting, critical qualities for motivating shoppers to put down their iPhones, leave their homes and browse for a while. Few people know Simons’ approach to design better than Andrew Gallici,
This
At Simons’ two-level flagship within Yorkdale Shopping Centre, retail unfolds as
nature-inflected
is intuitive
open,
This spread At the multi-level Simons’ within CF Toronto Eaton Centre, interiors unfold as a calm yet kinetic sequence shaped by light, movement and flow. A legible circulation spine links boutique-scaled zones, while vertical moments around escalators draw the eye upward and encourage pause. Material restraint is balanced by immersive digital layers and nuanced lighting, creating a spatial rhythm that shifts between quiet clarity and urban energy, while maintaining a highly navigable retail landscape.
a senior associate and design director at Gensler, the firm that handled the interiors for both the Yorkdale and Eaton Centre locations. But his history with Simons goes much deeper.
He first discovered the retailer as a design student at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University, or TMU). It was the early 1990s, and he shopped at the Québec City flagship while on a summer exchange. “I fell in love with their knitwear,” he says. Later, as a young designer at Toronto’s IDG, he worked on the Montréal and Sherbrooke locations. “It was almost unheard of at the time for a Québec retailer to work with a Toronto design studio,” says Gallici. “But Simons was very astute. They knew they needed to work with a firm that had a lot of retail experience, and IDG had a lot of finesse with retail.”
In total, Gallici has worked on 11 Simons stores, more than half of the company’s locations. As he has moved between firms throughout his career, including five years co-running his own studio, Design-
stead, he brought Simons along. “Simons was one of our first accounts at Designstead,” he says. “They were like our patron saints.”
The bond is close enough that when Nordstrom shuttered, Gallici called his contacts at Simons, saying “I have every suspicion that you will soon be procuring two leases in Toronto,” he recalls. “I knew they had been waiting for the right opportunity to expand into Toronto. I also knew I wanted to work on the projects.”
The Yorkdale location, at just under 120,000 square feet, came first. “One of Simons’ goals is that their stores reflect the vernacular of their place,” explains Gallici. “At Yorkdale, which is in a more suburban area, there’s more of a bucolic calm.” The overall layout is straightforward: womenswear occupies the ground floor, with menswear and a small home décor section above. Accessories sit at the centre of both floors, clustered around the escalators, with clothing departments radiating outward, each focused on a different demographic. “Accessories are central because they tend to cross demographics,” says Gallici. “Even as people change outfits, styles or age out of certain clothing, they cherish their accessories longer.”
One of Gallici’s key design goals is intuitive wayfinding and visual cues that help customers locate what they’re looking for. At Yorkdale, specific colours denote different departments. “The store benefits from a lot of natural light,” he says. “And humans crave
nature. That was the basis of the design: trying to bring in as many natural colours as possible.”
On the first floor, Gallici and his team employed a palette of earth tones. “For Twik, which targets younger women, we used buffs and terracottas, like we’re sowing the seeds of someone’s lifelong fashion journey,” he explains. “For Contemporaine, we used deeper greens, as it’s more for a woman in full bloom.”
On the second level, Menswear leans toward blues and greys. The accessories department is finished in shimmering bronze tones.
“The centre of the store is like the sun,” says Gallici. “Overhead, there’s a huge mural, more than 20,000 square feet, by French artist Nelio. It begins in pinks and golds at one end, becoming darker purples at the other. It’s a bit like a beautiful sunset.” The flooring also aids wayfinding. While the original terrazzo remains, Gallici overlaid areas of carpeting to introduce more colour and to differentiate departments from the main circulation corridors.
Working on the Eaton Centre location was a special moment for Gallici. As a student, he worked at Eaton’s, the department store that was the mall’s long-time anchor tenant. “I learned a lot about retail design from that experience, just by paying attention to the store and the way customers moved through it,” he says. “It’s so gratifying to contribute to the evolution of a space, and of an industry, that means so much to me.”
While the Eaton Centre store shares a similar layout with Yorkdale — with a central accessories department, menswear above and womenswear below — the aesthetic is distinct. “We leaned into the fact that the Eaton Centre is in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District [and] right beside Sankofa Square, which is filled with billboards,” says Gallici. As such, in Simons there’s a largescale installation by Toronto artists Trevor Wheatley and Cosmo Dean that looks a bit like urban advertising, rising through the store’s central atrium, complete with bright neon colours.
Designing the Eaton Centre location, which spans just over 110,000 square feet, came with unique challenges. “Yorkdale had a very clean, simple floor plate with two rectangular levels,” says Gallici. “The Eaton Centre is spread over three levels, all different sizes, with the third floor being the largest.”
The second and smallest level was once largely a shoe stock area, divided into long, narrow spaces. Gallici repurposed it to house lingerie. “We created these giant runways with LED lights overhead,” he says. “The colours are darker and moodier, and the spaces feel intimate but still fun. I was afraid no one would go up to the second level, but I’ve heard from so many women that they love it now. When people want to be there, that’s when you know you have a success.”
By Josh Nelson
& OUT
The Art of the Ascent
When vertical transit doubles as spatial theatre.
There’s a paradox at the heart of vertical living: the one room everyone shares is the one we tend to ignore. Elevator cabs are often experienced more than lobbies and more intimately than corridors, yet they rarely receive the same level of design attention. That is beginning to change. In premium residential architecture these compact, high-traffic spaces are being reimagined as vertical galleries, atmospheric thresholds, or even branded extensions of the building itself. When elevated with care, the elevator cab stops being background and starts becoming a statement.
This is evident at 155 Yorkville Avenue, a luxury residential address in the heart of Toronto’s tony retail district, where the elevators are more than just functional. Designed with material richness, reflection, and layered storytelling, the cabs extend the building’s luxury brand into a space that’s often treated as an afterthought.
Here, JNKM Design transformed dated wood cabins into a refined, jewel-like interior. Bronze-toned metals, easy-to-maintain frosted
glass panels, concealed curved-glass light fixtures, and a continuous handrail that wraps the perimeter of the cab like a bracelet work together to create warmth, depth, and cohesion. The centrepiece of each cab is a custom photographic collage developed to reflect the cultural and architectural layers of the Yorkville–Bloor neighbourhood. Framed in bronze and glass, the artwork acts as a visual timepiece, charting Yorkville’s evolution from bohemian village to public park and luxury shopping destination.
Taken together, the cabs at 155 Yorkville exemplify how elevator interiors, often overlooked, can become meaningful extensions of a building’s identity. In a neighbourhood defined by curated experiences and layered histories, these cabs speak the language of luxury, memory, and motion. In a city where history often vanishes behind glass and gloss, they offer something different: a reason to pause, and a reminder that even small spaces can carry big stories.
Josh Nelson is founder and creative director at Toronto-based JNKM Design.
Josh Nelson
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