Ground Café	Sports World	Tokyo Office Tower

Ground café

The concept for the café grew out of a need for a HOSPITABLE PUBLIC RECEPTION area. What followed was a full service café concentrating on premium fair trade coffee and breakfast and lunch menus. The café functions as a reception area for the office beyond and serves customers coming in for food who can stay to read or work. The design is meant to reflect the office sensibility as a place of work and to interface with the dining part of the café. It is a place of WORK AND REST INTEGRATED and existing side by side.

The challenge was to define a space that represents both the office and the café, without competing with each other or confusing patrons and clients. People should be able to relate to the studio beyond, without feeling like they are intruding into the wrong space. The division between the office and café is distinct but dissolves as both spaces open up to each other and people from BOTH AREAS INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER.

Sports World

Sports World Twin Pad & Multi-purpose Facility
Kitchener, Ontario
New Construction Assembly ($8 million)
Feb.2004 - Jan. 2005
Contact: Joe Wood, Sports World (416) 347-1510

Sports World has been serving the Kitchener area with sporting and entertainment venues for many years. The Sports World Twin Pad was a recent addition to the complex offering much needed ice time to the city of Kitchener. This facility is intended to offer the community a hockey venue but also - as a multipurpose facility - to offer the city a place for events like conventions and concerts to take place. The focus was to design a building that would host public functions as a large convention/event space. Designed to withstand the daily use of a hockey facility, the design of public areas (like especially the lobby) were intended to be a graceful presentation to the public vision.

The program was developed together with the client as the design progressed, to contain meeting spaces and the future convention hall. The original concept was also further developed after meeting with the city of Kitchener hockey leagues, the barrier-free committee and the public. Much of what the citizens and community members offered as suggestions and wishes were incorporated into the design of what was to be a truly community building.

Tokyo Office Tower

This office tower conceptualized for the city of Tokyo was built for the main headquarters of a company run by two brothers. The design was intended to recall elements of the Art Deco era of skyscraper design and construction. It was intended represent the brothers' rise to prosperity capturing some of that sense with the jewelry-like detailing of the entrance and use of gold elements. The large elliptical dome which stood at the head of the building would represent the leadership of the company by two people (that is the two focal points of the ellipse).