Viva Aquavato!

Aquavato, in Toronto’s King Street East design district, held its VIP grand opening in late September. The central feature of the space is an open-concept staircase whose treads cantilever off a three-point truss. That PoMo industrial look walked me 30 years down Memory Lane to the opening of the late, lamented Triede, the high-end furnishings store were design types would come to buy Michael Graves’s Alessi tea kettle or just admire the trendsetting polished finish on the Venetian-stucco walls. Today, the space’s elegant bones make a fitting backdrop to the large variety of luxury bathroom and kitchen fixtures on display.

Photo credit: David Lasker

Aquavato’s Spencer Vaudry, account executive; Krystal McNaughton, manager; Maria Rojas, account executive; and Duane Davis, outside account manager.
Olesia Stefurak, architect at OS Design Group; and Henry Calderon, who as a real estate consultant helped shape the King Street East design district, which stretches from Parliament to Yonge Streets.
Kohler’s Elaine Birkbeck and Saad Ahmed, sales executives; and Nick Rinaldi, branch sales manager, Ontario, gathered near the 3D-printed Grid faucet and taps from their company’s Kallista luxury brand.