Chronicle - Winter 2008

Q U E B E C C I T Y • M O N T R E A L • T O R O N T O • W I N N I P E G

Buffalo Gal Pictures Keepsthe Art Films Coming

WINTER 2008

2 HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS

Hospital Architects Farrow PartnershipGreening up their New College West OfficesHospital Architects Farrow PartnershipGreening up their New College West Offices

4What A Catch: First Fishing Show Producedand Directed by a Woman

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PLUS:• Médiom: One of Quebec City’s

first Internet Providers• Totum Tips: Ski Conditioning • Winnipeg’s Syverson

Monteyne Architects• Toronto’s Colborne Lane

Designs a Tasting Experience

Montreal label ATMA Classiquesees global CD sales grow

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2 HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS

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ST. LAWRENCE MARKET AREA, TORONTO / - Find out March 7th to 22nd when the Acting UpStage Theatre Company presents the Canadian premiere of A Man of No Importance at the BerkeleyStreet Theatre Upstairs in Toronto.

The musical tells the story of Dublin bus con-ductor Alfie Byrne who is content reading OscarWilde poetry to his passengers and staging plays in his local church. But when forced to confront a lifelong secret, Alfie must learn to face his truenature and finally take a stand in the world.

With a score by the team that brought Ragtimeto the musical stage, and performed by a cast of 12 of Canada’s best musical theatre performersfrom Stratford, Shaw and Mirvish productions, A Man of No Importance celebrates the genius of Oscar Wilde, the boisterous streets of 1960sDublin, and the bumps along the road to self-discovery.

manofnoimportance.com

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 2

TORO

NTO Downtown East musical asks: What happens

when our deepest secrets are finally revealed?

Douglas E. Hughes is Alfie in A Man of No Importance at the Berkeley StreetUpstairs Theatre in March.

3 • WINTER 2008

TORONTOWHAT A CATCH The only fishing show in the world directed and produced by a woman

ADELAIDE STREET WEST, TORONTO / - Sturgeons are one of the oldest and biggest fish on the planet. Having notchanged much in the last 200 million years, they live to about 100 and some grow to 10 feet long. They inhabit costal waters but swim up river in the spring to spawn, says Kathryn Maroun.But half way through her explanation of sturgeon lifecycles andher quest to catch one in B.C., she stops, suddenly self-conscious.

“I’m sorry, I’m such a fish nerd,” she says, laughing.

A professional angler and host of the television show What aCatch, Maroun’s ‘nerdy’ enthusiasm for fish facts have helped toput her behind the only fishing show in the world directed andproduced by a woman.

ENTREPRENEUR TURNED PRODUCER Her entrepreneurial background (she ran Paragon Pottery for 10 years before selling it)prepared her for the vagaries of television production, but it washer fishing background and dynamic personality that helped her parlay her work as a guide and fly casting instructor into a full-time business producing and hosting her own adventure fishing show, which airs on the Outdoor Life Network in the U.S. and on the A Channel here.

She also has her own line of practical, fashionable clothing forwomen involved in outdoor pursuits (an idea spawned from years of fishing in clothes designed for men), and runs Casting forRecovery Canada, a charity that takes breast cancer survivors fishing.

What a Catch Productions, whose headquarters are at 425 Adelaide Street West, is now churning out its fifth season of adventure travel fishing. In the last four years, Maroun has traveled from Norway to South Africa seeking remote destinationsin her quest to catch and release some of the world’s most exoticand rare game fish.

But as any pro will tell you, fishing for a living is anything but relaxing.

TO CATCH A FISH “We don’t roll footage until we land a fish,because if you film an area first and don’t catch a fish there andmove, your background scenery won’t match up,” explains Maroun.

And for each fish you see her catch on the show, she’s actuallyhad to catch as many as three to capture the different cameraangles of hooking, fighting and landing a fish, all of which arelater edited into a single sequence.

EXOTIC TRAVEL MEETS FISHING Filmed in High Definition,the show’s format is ready for the future of broadcasting, and as faras the content goes, Maroun knows she’s ahead of the curve there too as a growing number of men and women pick up fly fishing.

“Fishing is the new golf,” she says, “a lot of big business deals happen in these fishing camps. You’re there with business associates for a week, things slow down and business happens.”

whatacatch.net

Casting for Recovery: Taking Breast Cancer Patients FishingKathryn Maroun, host of television’s What a Catch, foundedCasting for Recovery Canada in 2004. Since then, 170women have participated in the weekend getaways, andmost were non-fishers who have since converted, finding themeditative quality of fly fishing a rejuvenating experience.Trips are funded entirely by private corporate donations and alottery draws names for each trip. Everything is taken careof, including lodging, meals and instruction, but participantsdo need to have their doctor’s permission to go. To register, volunteer or donate,visit ww.castingforrecovery.com

Kathryn Maroun was a guideand fly casting instructorbefore producing and hostingher own adventure fishingshow, which airs OLN in theU.S. and on the A Channel here.

RUE ATLANTIC, MONTRÉAL / - À en croire Rolling StoneMagazine, les jours du CD audio, supplanté par le télécharge-ment, le partage de fichiers et la copie de musique, sont comptés. Mais la maison de disques ATMA, basée à Montréal,a un entrepôt entier de CD et de CD super audio tout justesortis de la production, un catalogue de vedettes musicalesclassiques et internationales qui grossit à vue d’oeil et un con-trat tout juste signé avec Naxos, qui distribuera ses titres auxÉtats-Unis.

Pour ATMA, dont le siège social est situé au 400 Atlantic dans le quartier de la cour de Triage d’Outremont, le pessimisme ambiant quant à l’avenir du CD est très excessif.

« [Le téléchargement] nous touche moins, car les amateursde musique classique n’écoutent généralement pas leur musiquede cette façon-là », explique Michel Ferland, directeur de laproduction chez ATMA. En fait, les ventes de la société à

l’échelle mondiale ont fortement augmenté (45 %du total des ventes proviennent de l’étranger), etce, avant qu’elle ne signe son contrat avec Naxos.Par ailleurs, son catalogue ne cesse de s’étoffer.

« Contrairement à la musique pop, il n’existe dans la musique classique pratiquement aucunebarrière linguistique ou culturelle », affirme Michel Ferland en expliquant que le réseau de distribution d’ATMA compte maintenant 25 pays.

Pour ce qui est du téléchargement, selon lui, les symphonies sont beaucoup trop longues et nécessiteraient de nombreux efforts et des ordinateurs très puissants pour être téléchargéescorrectement, car pour ce type de musique, laqualité de l’enregistrement est très importante.

Malgré tout, ATMA est bien présente sur leWeb. Son directeur du marketing, Brandon Bayer, en poste à Toronto, a créé une base de donnéesd’enregistrements à laquelle les détaillants

comme iTunes peuvent accéder, mais elle est utilisée plutôtpour faire naître un intérêt pour ses albums et faire vendre les CD par la suite.

ATMA, mot sanscrit qui signifie « âme », organise desséances d’enregistrement pour de grands talents classiquescanadiens. Elle s’occupe de l’embauche des musiciens, de lalocation du lieu d’enregistrement (souvent une église plutôtqu’une salle de concert) et de la gestion de l’aspect techniquede l’enregistrement. Elle grave aussi le CD et gère le réseau de distribution.

Johanne Goyette, mélomane et ancienne réalisatrice à Radio-Canada, a travaillé comme ingénieure du son pendant dix ans avant d’acheter ATMA en 1995. Depuis, le catalogue dela maison de disques, qui couvre plusieurs périodes du baroqueau contemporain, est passé à plus de 300 titres et compte de nombreux artistes très connus, québécois pour la plupart.

CHRONIQUE COMMUNAUTAIRE • 4

Une classe à partMalgré le téléchargement et le piratage, ATMA augmente ses ventes de CD.

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ATLANTIC AVE., MONTREAL / - To ATMA, whose headquarters are located at 400 Atlantic in the Triage Outremont, rumours of the CD’sdeath have been greatly exaggerated.

“[Downloading] affects us less because classical music enthusiastsdon’t generally listen to music that way,” says Michel Ferland, ATMA’sdirector of production. In fact, international sales, have grown considerably (45 percent of total sales are made abroad), even beforethe company signed with Naxos, and its catalogue keeps growing.

ATMA, which is sandskrit for ‘soul’, arranges recording sessions for major Canadian classical talents, doing everything from hiring the musicians, to renting the recording space (often a church over a concert hall), to managing the technical aspect of the recording. It also presses the CD and manages the distribution network.

Classical music aficionado and former Radio-Canada producerJohanne Goyette worked as a sound engineer for 10 years before buying ATMA in 1995. Since then, the firm’s catalogue, which covers

In a Class of their Own Despite music downloading and piracy trends, classical record label ATMA’s CD sales growing.

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On y trouve, pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns, desenregistrements du chef d’orchestre Yannick Nézet-Séguin,de la soprano Karina Gauvin, du clarinettiste André Moisan,des ensembles les Boréades, les Voix humaines, Les VoixBaroques et les Violons du Roy, sans oublier ceux de laSociété de Musique contemporaine du Québec et du Nouvelensemble moderne.

« Nous enregistrons aussi nous-mêmes 80 à 90 % des CD de notre catalogue », déclare Michel Ferland, en ajoutantqu’en 2007, la maison de disques a organisé quelque 40séances d’enregistrement différentes. La grande majorité desenregistrements est réalisée à Québec ou à Montréal, maiscette année certaines productions ont emmené l’équiped’ATMA en Angleterre, aux Pays-Bas et en Espagne.

« Même si ses ventes restent appréciables, ATMA reconnaîtque l’industrie de la musique est en constante évolution et en profonde mutation. Elle est en train de remanier son siteWeb, qui comprendra des pages réservées exclusivement auxabonnés, notamment des podcasts et des profils d’artistes.

atmaclassique.com

5 • HIVER 2008

several periods from Baroque to contemporary, has grown to over 300 titles and includes a great number of well-known, and mostlyQuebecois, artists.

Among these can be found the recordings of orchestra leaderYannick Nézet-Séguin, soprano Karina Gauvin, clarinettist AndréMoisan, as well as recordings from ensembles such as les Boréades,les Voix humaines, les Voix baroques et les Violons du roy, not to mention works from la Société de musique contemporaine du Québecand from the Nouvel ensemble moderne.

PURCHASE OF KITCHENERBUILDING OPENS NEWMARKET FOR ALLIED REITWAREHOUSE DISTRICT, KITCHENER / - “With the acquisition of 72 Victoria Street, we’ve established a promising new target market in the Warehouse District of Kitchener. It’s an emergingurban neighbourhood with the same historic character and mix of uses that have made our current target markets so successful,”says Michael Emory, president of Allied Properties REIT.

72 Victoria Street is a five-storey, Class I office building locatedon the southeast corner of Victoria and Joseph Streets in theWarehouse District of downtown Kitchener. It has 85,610 squarefeet of GLA, 4,265 square feet of storage space and 228 surfaceparking spaces.

The high-quality, brick-and-beam structure that was renovatedin 1999, is almost completely leased to eight tenants, all consistentin character and quality with other tenants in the portfolio.

Montreal soprano Karina Gauvin

Yannick Nézet-Séguin,Montreal conductor

(Page précédente) Sessiond’enregistrement pour LesViolons du Roy au PalaisMontcalm à Québec, 2007.

72 Victoria Street in Kitchener’s Warehouse District, inside(above) and out.


TORO

NTO Award-Winning Hospital Architects

Building Healthy Office Farrow Partnership renovating College West space to LEED Platinum

COLLEGE STREET WEST, TORONTO / - Architect Tye Farrow has long considered the notion of what makes a healthy environment. In fact,as a senior partner with Farrow Partnership Architects, a Toronto-basedfirm with a world-renowned expertise in building healthy hospitals,he’s made something of a career of it.

Granted, the firm has commercial, educational and public sectorprojects to its credit, but its work on Mississauga’s Credit ValleyHospital and the Thunder Bay Health Sciences Centre - particularly each project’s dramatic use of wood, and multiple-height interiorspaces flooded with natural light - has garnered worldwide attentionand a slew of international awards.

With all that time spent considering ideas of health and what is a healthy environment, it’s hardly a stretch to discover the firm’s newspace at 559 College Street West will be renovated to a platinum level LEED Commercial Interior standard, making it one of the first such projects in Ontario. (For more on LEED, see sidebar.)

“We look at what is the power of a physical environment to create significant change,” says Farrow of his role as an architect. “And health projects are a spectacular frontier in that respect.”

When designing a radiation treatment centre, for example, the firmheard cancer patients talk of their need to see signs of life. “But realsigns of life,” recalls Farrow, “not flower motifs worked into the design.”That’s when they looked to art galleries to learn how indirect lightingcould filter into the space giving the interior a daylight quality.

The firm has designed operating rooms with views of the outsideand won accolades for its daylight-friendly design of the Thunder Bay

Health Sciences Centre. A glass and wood public concourse arcs alongthe sun’s path, allowing the space to be passively heated by the sun in the winter, and in summer, when the sun is higher, the sunlight isdeflected.

Reaching to elements of nature, the Farrow Partnership also pioneered the use of intricate glue lam construction at Credit ValleyHospital’s atrium where massive Douglas Fir columns spread and spanto make what is arguably the most intricate wood structure in NorthAmerica.

“It ties into issues of nature and health,” says Farrow, adding that it is also about the people who work there and how retention inhealth care is a serious issue.

“You want to create an environment that people want to work in,”he explains, bringing the health and wellness conversation back to the developments in his own office.

The firm’s 10,000-square-foot warehouse-like space on the top floor of a five-storey College Street address just West of Bathurst is the tallest structure for some blocks, and its large windows yield spectacular views on all four sides.

Daylight harvesting, using light shelves on the south and west sides to reflect light onto the ceiling, is one part of the renovation plan(the space already has lights on sensors, allowing a savings of almost45 percent on electricity). And a lantern popping out of the roof’s centre will draw more light into the core, as well as facilitate a displacement air system that will circulate air over a living (plant) wall and into the space.

Radiant heating and cooling will keep the space comfortablethrough the different seasons and a roof-top water harvesting systemwill help fill tanks to flush the toilets.

Work is underway and, while staffers are keen to see their officestransformed, most do not hide their enthusiasm for plans to build arooftop patio. After all, this is College West.

farrowpartnership.com

INCOMING!

New Slow Food Restaurant toOpen in King West Boiler Room

7 • WINTER 2008

KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - The boiler room on thewest side of 604 King Street West will soon be the settingof the King Street Food Company’s latest venture, an as-yet un-named Italian restaurant.

Peter Tsebelis and Gus Giazitzidis, the duo that broughtBrassaii Bistro to the neighbourhood five years ago, and inJanuary opened the Brant Street steakhouse Jacobs & Co.,are converting 3,000 square feet of a former mechanicalroom into a slow food restaurant.

“It refers to a clean, rustic, organic approach to foodservice,” says Tsebelis of the slow food term. While the50-seat Italian restaurant will have a selection of pizzasand pastas, he says, the heart of its menu will be simpleand clean tasting dishes featuring cured meats, regionalcheeses and seasonal veggies.

Using artisanal sources, some local, some international,says Tsebelis, means much of the menu will changealmost daily.

“We’ll be using very source-specific items where the producers only make so much of it, so we’ll be at thewhim of that,” he explains.

Rather than the onus being on cooking, the new restaurant focuses on sourcing, assembling and presenting great food to discerning diners. It’s a philosophy in tune with the growing international slowfood movement, an antidote to the fast food attitude that often overlooks quality for the sake of convenience.

As for space, the main room will feature a standingwine bar and towards the back of the house, there will be a small 20-person tasting room. And rather than hidethe location’s pipe work, the duo intends to highlight it.

“It’s like the food,” says Tsebelis. “We’re going to try to preserve as much of its natural integrity as possiblewhen presenting it.”

Thunder Bay Health SciencesCentre (above and left) with itsarced public concourse and CreditValley Hospital (opposite page) inMississauga with its forest ofDouglas Fir columns in the atriumare attributes of the firm’s bestknown health care projects.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and EnvironmentalDesign, and the CI is for Commercial Interiors. LEED is a set of guidelines that evaluates a project using a rating-based system that looks at every aspect of how a space impacts the environment, from the amount of fossil fuels burned torenovate it, to its operating efficiency (how much water andenergy it uses, for example) right through to its proximity topublic transit and whether there’s bike parking. It’s a big picture approach to reducing the impact of buildings onthe environment.

WHAT IS LEED CI?

Médiom Internet : des services adaptés aux besoins des PME


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ST-ROCH, QUÉBEC / - Médiom Internet, un des tout pre-miers fournisseurs de services Internet à Québec, est bienplacée pour savoir que, dans le secteur des technologies, le ventpeut tourner très vite. Pionnière à ses débuts en 1995 quandelle a commencé à proposer ses services aux particuliers et auxentreprises, elle compte aujourd’hui dix employés installés,depuis 2001, dans 3 000 pi2 de bureau à Saint-Roch. MaisMédiom est une entreprise miniature comparée aux géants,comme Bell et Vidéotron, qui dominent son marché.

« Quand on est en concurrence avec des entreprises de cette taille, les prix à eux seuls ne peuvent pas faire la dif-férence », explique Pascal Turmel, contrôleur financier, « maison peut se distinguer par la qualité du service à la clientèle. »

Médiom propose à sa large clientèle de particuliers des services adaptés spécifiquement à leurs besoins comme les connexions haute vitesse, la téléphonie IP et l’assistance technique, dans la lignée de ce que proposent les grandesentreprises, mais avec l’avantage d’être plus flexible pours’adapter aux nouveaux besoins et d’offrir des services plus personnalisés.

Par exemple, un service de nettoyage de virus et de logiciel espion est proposé aux abonnés qui leur permet de faire nettoyer leur ordinateur à distance par l’équipe de Médiom.

Mais Médiom ne s’arrête pas aux services de

connexion. Depuis 2000, elle propose aussi des servicesd’hébergement et de conception de sites Web. En proposantaux entreprises l’infographie, la programmation, l’exécutionet la maintenance de projets Web, Médiom fournit un servicepersonnalisé et flexible à de grands sites tels que Les arts et laville, La Maison du Futur et Concert Plus.

En fait, c’est grâce à la flexibilité de ses services que Médioma pu lancer son projet Phénix de développement de fonctionsInternet spécialisées pour les entreprises. C’est un programmequi vise le développement d’outils de commerce électroniqueaxés principalement sur les besoins de la PME.

En 2005, Médiom Internet décide de proposer un service de Téléphonie IP, ce qui a fait d’elle une des pionnières dans ce secteur à Québec. Suite à un partenariat avec babyTEL,Médiom offre 5 forfaits différents à ses clients.

En 2007, la société commence à proposer des services de soutien informatique à distance. Ses techniciens ont directement accès en ligne aux ordinateurs des clients pourrésoudre leurs problèmes techniques.

« Nos clients nous choisissent parce que nous leur apportonsce dont ils ont besoin », déclare Pascal Turmel en ajoutant que si son entreprise n’offre pas tel ou tel service, elle trouverasouvent les moyens de le faire si besoin est. « Les grandesentreprises ne peuvent pas s’adapter aux besoins spécifiques de leurs clients aussi rapidement que nous. »

mediom.qc.ca

ST-ROCH, QUEBEC CITY / - As one of the first Internet service providers in Québec City, Médiom Internet knows how quickly the tides of technology can change. It was a pioneer in 1995 when it began connecting its residential and commercial clients, but today, this company of ten employees,which has operated out of 3,000 square feet in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood since 2001, is the little guy in a marketplace dominated by behemoths like Bell and Videotron.

Beyond residential services and IP telephony (one of Québec City’s first such providers) Médiomoffers commercial web hosting and runs a full-service web site development arm it started in 2000.Grouping design, programming, execution and maintenance of web projects, it works with large commercial clients bringing personalized service and adaptability to web sites such as Les arts et la ville, La Maison du Futur, and Concert Plus.

In fact, it’s this adaptability has help to launch Phénix, its specialized enterprise service offering,which is designed to respond to the commercial marketplace’s interest in electronic commerce.

Mediom Internet’s pioneering spirit and nimble size allow it to stay ahead of the curve

9 • WINTER 2008

Arnott + Associates: Long Term Relationships Key to Interior Design Firm’s SuccessEXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / - If there’s 5,000 square feetof commercial space to be designed, it’s likely to be a project on Arnott +Associates’ job list. An established local designer, Leah Arnott isWinnipeg’s go-to person for small-scale office design.

“I enjoy a lot of [project] turnover, I guess I get bored easily,” she says,so she focuses on projects in the 3,000 to 6,000-square-foot category. By keeping her fees reasonable, her budgets tight and her relationshipsclose, she has earned a reputation as one of the city’s most respectedindependent Interior Design firms.

“Winnipeg is a tough market, so you have to be creative.” she says,adding that there appears to be a greater awareness of the role interiordesigners play.

“It’s a great time to be an interior designer, there have been a lot ofpositive changes in the industry,” she says about the fact that designersare called upon to do increasingly more than manage aesthetic changes.

GETTING TECHNICAL Always up for a challenge, Arnott is unafraid to venture outside of the usual expectations of interior designers by workingon exterior facades and larger structural projects. Of course structuralengineers are consulted on such matters, but Arnott says she’s not daunted by technical challenges.

“I’ve done more architectural-like projects than most interior designerswould take on,” she says.

Leah’s father, a well-known Regina architect, influenced her appreciationof architectural design from a young age. Arnott studied theatre and setdesign as well as graphic design before entering into the University ofManitoba’s Interior Design school.

RADIO BUSINESS Business grew in the mid 1980s when she re-designeda rural radio station for Radio Southern Manitoba, morphing an outdated space into a more corporate environment. The work made hera radio station expert and she went on to do nine more stations for RSM, as well as HOT 103 and Corus-owned CJOB.

It is work she refers to as fairly standard office renovations with anadded technical aspect. Still, it has earned her a reputation that continuesto keep the studio at 115 Bannatyne Ave. abuzz with activity. Beyonddoing a good job, Arnott believes in the strength of her relationships.

“There are lots of designers out there that produce good design,” shesays, “but it’s important to build long term relationships. That’s how Ibuilt my business.”

WINNIPEG

Arnott’s interior work includes(from top) Winnipeg ad agencyOsborn + Barr Canada; WesternIndustrial Services; and aWinnipeg wine bar. Exterior workcompleted includes (below l-r)Things, an antique store; mortgagebroker Invis; and The PaperGallery on Corydon Avenue.

EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / - Simple, welllit, logical and accessible, the Winnipeg office of SyversonMonteyne Architecture, at 70 Arthur Street, draws neatparallels between its work and its own space.

Recognized frequently for its successful realization of theFort Whyte visitor’s centre in 2000, the firm has focusedmuch of its late efforts in the residential sector, creatingunique, modern and very functional upscale homes.

“Five years ago, somebody with money wouldn’t necessarily build an expensive house here because they’dsee it as a questionable investment since it wouldn’t holdits value,” says Tom Monteyne, noting that, 10 years ago city houses were even depreciating.

VALUE & STYLE But now that real estate in Winnipeg in general is appreciating, people are seeing the value of in-filling a stylish new house in an established neighbourhood,one with old trees and all the amenities close at hand.

“And people are also appreciating the value of good architec-ture,” says Monteyne, who left local firm Smith Carter in 1994with co-worker Dean Syverson to form their own partnership.

FORT SUCCESS They also both taught at the University ofManitoba’s School of Architecture and continued to grow theirbusiness, winning awards and recognition for their innovativedesign of the Fort Whyte visitor services centre, a Winnipegenvironmental education centre that incorporated a number of environmentally-sensitive approaches well before the LEEDmovement took hold.

Passive solar heating, geothermal heating and cooling, re-using old cedar telephone poles to make doors and windowframes as well as incorporating the building’s on-site sewagetreatment into the design were just some of the ideas thathelped draw national attention to the building.

“It was the perfect project for us because everything about it needed to be unique,” says Monteyne, adding that the clientseemed to like, “every radical idea we came up with.”

For this boutique firm, architecture is personal. It’s perhapswhy residential work is what occupies the firm’s core staff ofeight (it hires consultants as needed) most.

PERSONAL TOUCH But the team has worked on a number of commercial projects with the same personal approach,including conversions of inner city rooming houses to low-costrentals, office interiors (for Allied Properties REIT tenantsCocoon and Frantic Films), and a small terminal for regionalairline Calm Air.

Rather than specializing in one building type, the firm seeks interesting problems to solve, and Calm Air’s $4 million,30,000-square-foot facility, which opened last year on theWinnipeg airport tarmac, was typical of the challenges it seeks.

“Most of our clients aren’t coming to us with a preconceived,cookie-cutter notion of what they want,” says Monteyne, who helped to create a space that was not only a hangar, but acargo handling facility, pilot training centre, charter passengerterminal and regional office.

With over a decade of experience, Syverson Monteyne hasbecome more adept at finding and executing the projects thatinterest it. As a boutique firm, the work it produces continuesto focus on creative problem solving, mostly by delivering one-of-a-kind designs that respond to the needs of the space’ssurroundings as much as to its users.

sm-arc.com

Boutique Architecture Firm Focuses Foremoston Unique Problem Solving

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Syverson Monteyne’sinnovative Fort Whytevisitor centre (left), and a model of one of itsresidential projects.


The firm’s officeson Arthur Street

in Winnipeg.

11 • WINTER 2008

HEALTH / SANTÉT O T U M T I P S

Two Simple Exercises for a Better’s Day’s Skiing

Box JumpYou need to jump onto a box orsomething that’s about the height of an average gym bench.

1. From a squat position (eyes forward and thighs parallel to the floor)...

2. Power upwards straighteningthrough the hip, knees and ankles.

3. To land onto the box in the squat position. Start with threesets of 10 and increase.

Les sauts sur une boîtePour cet exercice, il faut sauter surune boîte ou un petit banc de la hauteur d’un banc de gymnastique.

1. En position accroupie (les yeux droit devant et les cuisses parallèles au sol)...

2. poussez vers le haut enallongeant les hanches, lesgenoux et les chevilles.

3. et atterrissez sur le banc ou la boîte en position accroupie.Effectuez trois séries de dixrépétitions.

SquatFor strength and endurance, as well asthe ability to manage the lactic build upand increase your core strength, nothingbeats a proper squat. Here’s how to doone right.

1. Start with your head up, eyes front,knees bent with thighs parallel to floor.

2. Power upwards, extending through the hips and knees, all the while keeping your torso straight. Reps can vary from 5 to 15 depending onyour workout routine.

Les accroupissementsPour gagner en muscles et en enduranceet permettre au corps de gérer l’accumu-lation d’acide lactique et renforcer laceinture abdominale, rien de mieux quedes accroupissements.

1. La tête droite, les yeux droit devant, lesgenoux pliés et les cuisses parallèlesau sol.

2. Poussez vers le haut et allongez les hanches et les genoux tout en gardant le torse droit. Effectuez 5 à 15 répétitions en fonction de votre routine d’exercices.

Alleviating that feeling of aching quads half-way down the hill is just a matter of building up your anaerobic endurance, says Totumtrainer Mike Conroy, who is also the strength and conditioning coach for the Ontario Alpine Ski Team.

Dry land training for skiing is about developing strength, power and endurance, he says, explaining that typical conditioning fordeveloping your body’s energy systems includes high intensity intervals – like a few 30-second, all-out sprints followed by 60-second rests. For power, he suggests a box jump.

Deux exercices faciles pourune meilleure journée de ski Pour éviter le mal de jambes au milieu d’une piste de ski, il suffit derenforcer son endurance anaérobie, explique Mike Conroy, entraîneurchez Totum, mais aussi responsable de la mise en condition de l’équipede ski alpin de l’Ontario.

L’entraînement de ski sur la terre ferme consiste à développer la musculation et l’endurance, explique-t-il en ajoutant que pour développer les systèmes d’énergie du corps il faut des exercices deforte intensité entrecoupés de courtes pauses – plusieurs sprints de 30 secondes suivis de pauses de 60 secondes. Pour ce qui est de la musculation, il conseille les sauts sur une boîte.

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totum.ca

To learn more about training programs for specific activities,contact Tim Irvine at [email protected] or call (416) 979-2449.

Pour de plus amples reseignements (416) 979-2449.


MON

TRÉA

L Une équipe de professionnels de l’immobilier au service des locataires d’Allied

MONTRÉAL / - André Plourde était conscient de la difficultédu défi quand on lui a parlé du Balfour. Ce bâtiment desannées 20, situé au 3575 St-Laurent, s’étalait sur 180 000 pi2

et était occupé par plus de 90 locataires répartis sur 9 étages.

«Le Balfour avait été géré comme un centre d’affaires, on yretrouvait plusieurs locataires occupant de petits espaces dontles locaux étaient plus ou moins en bon état et il était difficiled’y attirer de gros locataires. La circulation dans l’immeubleétait dense et rendait l’entretien des espaces communs difficileen plus de ralentir les déplacements en ascenseurs», se souvientAndré Plourde, président du Groupe immobilier de Montréal,embauché en 2005 pour réduire le nombre de locataires del’édifice tout en conservant un taux d’occupation élevé. LeBalfour compte aujourd’hui moins de 50 locataires et afficheun taux d’occupation de 94%.

Depuis 2005, Groupe immobilier de Montréal est responsable des services de location des quelque deux millionsde pieds carrés d’espaces de bureaux qu’englobe le portefeuilled’Allied Properties REIT à Montréal.

Groupe immobilier de Montréal est en quelque sorte unprolongement d’Allied et travaille comme sous-traitant responsable du marketing, de la location des espaces vacantsainsi que de la gestion des renouvellements de baux et de l’expansion des locataires.

« Un des avantages de s’occuper du portefeuille d’Alliedest de pouvoir offrir à nos locataires une variété d’espaces dans des immeubles différents et accessiblesà presque tous les budgets. Malgré le fait qu’on y retrouve des loyers s’échelonnant de 8,00 $ à35,00 $ le pied carré, la plupart des locataires

du portefeuille sont issus du monde de l’informatique, de la publicité, des communications, des entreprises à larecherche d’une atmosphère de travail originale au niveau du design et soucieuses d’offrir un niveau de confort adéquat à leurs employés ».

Les agents de location du Groupe immobilier de Montréal travaillent en équipe avec un système de partage de rémunération, une formule unique dans le courtage immobilier où normalement on se fait concurrence au seind’un même bureau. Bien que chaque membre de l’équipe s’occupe d’immeubles différents au sein d’un vaste portefeuille,en se partageant la responsabilité de l’ensemble, les locatairesont plus facilement accès à une plus grande variété d’espaces.

André Plourde prend toujours soin de rappeler aux locatairesd’Allied qu’ils ne sont pas juste locataires d’un immeuble mais qu’ils occupent une partie d’un portefeuille immobiliercomprenant près de 2 millions de pieds carrés. Une partie deson travail consiste à leur en faire profiter.

groupeimmobilierdemontreal.com

Groupe Immobiler de Montreal’s dedicated AlliedProperties REIT team includes (l-r): Georges Renaud,André Plourde, Martin Vallée, Erik Tremblay andMichael Merten.

NEIGHBOURHOODWATCH

ADELAIDE STREET WEST, TORONTO / - As the AlliedProperties REIT portfolio expands, so does its staff since the need to service this larger number ofbuildings continues to grow. Staffers quickly outgrewthe space at 602 King Street West and, this January,operations were relocated to 255 Adelaide StreetWest. Phone and fax numbers, as well as emailaddresses remain the same as REIT personnel settlein to the lower level, ground and second floors of this 1900s-era, seven-storey building in Toronto’sEntertainment District, just West of Duncan Street.

alliedpropertiesreit.com

Allied REIT’s Head OfficeMoves to Adelaide West

13 • AUTOMNE 2007

Leasing Experts Help Tenants NavigateMontreal’s Allied PropertiesMONTREAL / - André Plourde knew he had a challenge on his handswhen he was first approached about the Balfour. The 1920s era building, at 3575 St. Laurent, had 180,000 square feet occupied bymore than 90 tenants, spread out over nine floors.

“It had been managed like a business centre, so there were lots ofsmaller tenants in mostly tired space, and it was hard to attract largertenants. The building also had a lot of traffic, which made it hard tomaintain the common areas and kept the elevators moving slowly,”recalls Plourde, president of Groupe Immobilier de Montréal, the localfirm hired in 2005 to reduce the number of tenants while maintainingthe high occupancy. Today, the revitalized Balfour houses 50 tenantsand is 94 percent occupied.

Since 2005, Allied Properties REIT has worked with GroupeImmobilier to provide leasing services to its close-to-two-million-square-foot Montreal portfolio.

Groupe Immobilier de Montreal works like an outsourced arm of the REIT, and is responsible for the marketing and leasing of thevacant space as well as managing renewals and expansions withexisting Montreal tenants.

“The beauty of working with the Allied portfolio is that we canoffer tenants a variety of space in different buildings that will fit most budgets. Spaces range from $8- to $35-a-square-foot gross and there’s a large selection of the type of space that creative andknowledge-based companies are always looking for,” says Plourde,explaining that tenants with changing space needs might do well to investigate options within the Allied portfolio.

What’s more, Groupe Immobilier operates on a pooled fund system where a team of five is responsible for that city’s portfolio,and share in the revenues generated from the deals completed.

“It’s also about idea sharing,” adds Plourde on the topic of hisfirm’s team approach, which is unusual in a business more likely to see individual brokers operate competitively – even within thesame firm.

With team members focused on different areas of thewide ranging portfolio, but sharing in the responsibility,tenants can get a clearer picture of what is available.

When discussing space options, Plourde oftenreminds tenants that they didn’t just take space in

a single building.

“I tell them they’re part of a two million square foot portfolio that is only

getting larger,” explains Plourde. “Andpart of our job is to help them takeadvantage of that.”

NEW ADDRESS...255 Adelaide Street WestToronto, Ontario M5H 1X9

ST. LAWRENCE MARKET AREA, TORONTO / - WhenClaudio Aprile was ready to open his own restaurant, after sixyears at Senses (three as executive chef after its move to theSoHo Metropolitan Hotel), he wanted to create somethingunique. Not that he didn’t have the freedom to explore atSenses, just that it was time to interpret an entire experience,and one he wanted unmistakably to be Toronto in character.

“I know a lot of restaurants open with owners talking abouthow it has a Manhattan feel, but in my business plan I statedwe would never say we are trying to be something else,” saysAprile, the owner and chef at Colborne Lane, who is knownfor his progressive modern cuisine style, which uses alternativemethods to create innovative reactions in food.

LANDMARKING A ‘Toronto’ restaurant, he explains, is one in a landmark building such as this, where the food and theattitude draw from a global palette, says Aprile.

One of a recent spate of restaurants to open on this block,the front space’s focal point is a 60-foot long onyx bar with amacro print of a painted fence decorating the wall behind it.

The dining area features custom-made communal tables and eclectic, high-tech light fixtures and modern art installa-tions mix with the bare brick and solid wood beams to givethe overall space a stylishly raw appearance. In looks and taste, it is something other than its predecessor, Café duMarché, a successful eatery run by a husband and wife teamfor 35 years before they chose to retire.

“That was great karma,” says Aprile of the former business’slongevity, “I didn’t feel like I was going into some failedrestaurant.”

PROGRESSIVE WITH A PAST Although he admits to originallyhaving some trepidation about opening East of Yonge Street, he was taken by the aesthetics of the space itself, its historiccharacter and how this fit with his agenda of finding a placethat could be progressive without ignoring its past.

“Because the concept here at Colborne Lane is ironies,” says Aprile, whose kitchen adopts a very open experimentalstyle to its creations.

A lemon tart, for example, will feature curds frozen into little pearls using liquid nitrogen. “So there’s an emphasis ontexture and temperature, and a visual aspect to what we do,” heexplains, hesitant to use any one term to describe his cuisine.

LOOSE INTERPRETATIONS Rather than following a foodtrend (highly progressive cuisine often entails following a lot of rules, he says) Colborne Lane offers a very loose interpretation of modern food.

“Here, you can do what you want,” he says. “Have one dish and a glass of wine, whatever. We have a tasting menuthat changes every day.”

Where Colborne Lane is about changing and enhancingfood, Aprile’s newest project, slated to open in the summer,will be something entirely different. The concept is still in development, but more news on it will be available in coming issues.

colbornelane.com

Colborne Lane’s Space and Taste Blend Culinary Ironies with Iconic Toronto


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About Aprile...2007 En Route Magazine names Colborne Lane one of the top 10 new restaurants in Canada.

2006 Toronto Life names Aprile one of the top four chefs in Toronto.

2003 Aprile was one of 25 chefs selected from around the world to take part in the annual James Beard awards in New York City.

2003 Sara Waxman names Aprile Chef of the Year.

2001 Vancouver Magazine names Aprile best chef inToronto “and the one to watch”. In the same year,Toronto.com awards Aprile six out of five stars.

15 • WINTER 2008

TORONTO

For February, Nicholas Metivier Gallery at 451 King Street Westpresents After Dark, a new series of daytime winterscapes from Mara Korkola, whose ongoing No Place nightscape paintings feature oil on aluminium in an of out-of-focus,photoreal style.

From the gallery notes…Mara Korkola’s ongoing No Place nightscape paintings are joined by a new series of daytime winterscapes. Thesepaintings continue the formal concerns yet in a reverse palette: the indeterminate light of winter, where sky and earth are toned in nuanced shades of grey.

Delicate wisps of colour define the residue and paraphenaliaof vehicles that transport us – headlights, street signs, tire

tracks, steam. Both series are reductive studies of familiar yet anonymous places. Korkola turns up the volume on themundane, creating hieroglyphic patches of snow and light and odd shapes splayed across pavement.

The small-scale depiction of vast receding roadways createsboth distance and intimacy: everything is the same size, from pylons to warehouse buildings. Korkola’s use of whiteand black are a means of evoking color and life throughabsence. Objects disappear into light or emerge from darkness,exploring the limit of what is visible.

Mara Korkola lives in Toronto. Exhibitions include Paintingas Paradox at Artists Space, New York; Synthetic Psychosis at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto andSmall Immensities at the Painting Center in New York.

KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - In January, the REIT added two new properties to its King West Central portfolio, acquiring 544 King Street West and the propertyimmediately to the north, 7-9 Morrison Street, with a view toexpansion and redevelopment. The Morrison property is an un-restored, three-storey, brick-and-beam building with approximately 16,000 square feet of leaseable space and 80 feet of frontage on Morrison Street.

“[7-9 Morrison] increases our range of options considerablywith respect to the redevelopment of 544 King Street West,” saidMichael Emory, President and CEO of Allied Properties REIT.

Over the longer term, the REIT intends to expand and redevelop the property in conjunction with the work being doneat 544 King Street West. Together, the two properties make upalmost 20,000 square feet with frontage on King and MorrisonStreets.

Korkola’s New After Dark Series at Metivier Gallery

Allied REIT Continues to Build King West Portfolio with Latest Acquisitions

Winter Was Hard 10, 2007, oil on aluminium, 7.5 x 11 inches each (triptych)

INCOMING!

Buffalo Gal Pictures Offers LocalProduction Services while Focusing onWriter- and Director-Driven Projects

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • WINTER 2008 • 16

EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / -Winnipeg can be a quiet place in January,but not for Buffalo Gal Pictures. Before thehaze of New Year’s Eve had even lifted, theoffices of the Winnipeg-based independentproduction company were teeming withactivity as a feature romantic comedy withRenee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr.

went into production fast on the heels of the December wrap on the Manitoba leg of The Hessen Affair, on a $20-million World War Two thriller.

The company is also finishing work on Less Than Kind, a series it is producing for CityTV, a comedy/drama about a 15-year-old growing up in Winnipeg with aself-destructive father and pyromaniac mother.

“And The Hessen Affair keeps shooting overseas in Belgium in January,” addsPhyllis Laing, taking a few minutes out of her busy schedule for an interview abouther 13-year-old production company, Buffalo Gal Pictures, housed in offices at 70 Arthur Street.

ACCLAIMED WORK Given the name, Laing says people sometimes think the company works on female-based projects, but a quick look at the production rostershows a mix of documentaries, comedies, dramas and television, and all of it with an eye to the artistic.

“The way we established the company, we wanted to work with the very best people, artistically, so from the get-go our projects have won awards internationally,”says Laing.

Indeed, since its start in 1994, Buffalo Gal Pictures has a steady stable of acclaimedwork to its credit, including Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World, the soonto be released film adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s novel The Stone Angel, as wellas Seven Times Lucky and My Winnipeg, and documentaries Gabrielle Roy and TheGenius of Lenny Breau.

SKILLED MANAGEMENT With a number of original projects, co-productionsand production service jobs on the go, Laing makes good use of the managementskills she developed on the financial side of the film industry where she started in1985 as an accountant.

“When the film community started here, I was asked if I knew anything aboutfilm accounting. I said, ‘No, but neither does anybody else around here right now’,”recalls Laing.

Working with producer Liz Jarvis, whom she hired when the company startedoperations, Laing says they like to focus on writer- or director-driven projects.

As for challenges, beyond the day-to-day, Laing says the volatility of distributioncompanies in North America is sometimes difficult to contend with, and can oftenhave them looking for a new financing partner half way through a production.

But with a solid financial background, Buffalo Gals Pictures appears to be wellequipped to grow at the pace of Manitoba’s $150 million film industry.

“There’s way more business in film than in any other art,” says Laing.

buffalogalpictures.mb.ca

www.alliedpropertiesreit.comSend your company info, events and story ideas to [email protected]

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Since its start in 1994, Buffalo GalPictures has completed sevendocumentaries, 10 feature filmservice productions and 52 hours of television. Some of its projectsinclude…• The Stone Angel• My Winnipeg• The Good Life• Niagara Motel• Seven Times Lucky• The Saddest Music in the World• Yellowknife• The Law of Enclosures

Isabella Rossellini in The Saddest Music in the World

Laing Jarvis

Billy Zane in The Hessen Affair

Ellen Burstyn in The Stone Angel

Chronicle - Winter 2008

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Transcript of Chronicle - Winter 2008