Ontario’s design community was all dressed up with a special place to go — the Liberty Grand in Toronto — on an evening near the end of September. The occasion was a gala dinner held by the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario (ARIDO), during which the winners of its annual awards program were announced.
The awards honour the innovation, creativity and professional achievement in the province’s interior design industry. Judges selected 32 designs from 10 categories: 20 Awards of Merit, 11 Awards of Excellence, and Project of the Year.
The top honour went Toronto’s Cannon Design, for the transformation of a historical powerhouse in St. Louis, Missouri, into a modern office building. Cannon’s crisp design contrasts the original structure with contemporary elements. In addition to Project of the Year, Cannon received two Awards of Merit for workplace designs (for Invesco Enterprise Services in Charlottetown and Urbacon in Toronto).
Other multiple winners include Burdifilek (two Awards of Excellence for W Hotel Downtown Atlanta, one for the hotel itself, the other for its Condo Sales Center; and another for Brown Thomas & Co. Men’s Department, in Dublin); Cecconi Simone (two Awards of Excellence, for Sub-Zero/Wolf Showroom and Lippincott Living Model Suite, both in Toronto); Gow Hastings Architects Inc. (an Award of Excellence for Humber College, Music Production Facility and Recording Studio, and a Merit for George Brown College, Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts, both in Toronto); and Stantec (an Award of Excellence for the design of its Toronto office, and a Merit for its office in Guelph, Ont.).
Says ARIDO president Deborah Rutherford, “The association takes great pride in the contribution its members make to public and private spaces. ARIDO’s Awards Program builds public awareness of our professional capabilities and the important contribution interior designers make to the built environment.”