Client: Concert Properties

Overview

Located in the city core, we created a storefront Sales Office with a “Canadian Moderne” flavor for a condominium project featuring a distinctive stepped tower rising 58 stories from a historic mid-century limestone and granite podium. Characterized by clean lines and simple forms the interiors are at once sleek and contemporary but also possess an Artisanal, bespoke quality that speaks to Canada's history of drawing from the land to craft the environment. Metals are oxidized or burnished, pattern is subtle (created through the visual play of texture) and materials are used honestly to highlight their inherent characteristics. Sophisticated and refined.

Goals

Referencing the Canadian Moderne genre, Ken Gangbar was commissioned to create an installation art piece that would set the tone and character for the Sales Office's reception area and which would later be installed in the main lobby of the final building. It was important that this piece communicate our design intent to prospective purchasers, adding to the flavor of the space without overwhelming or overstating a theme.

Process

Materials and overall flavor of the piece was an interactive discussion and exchange of ideas between the designer, Kelly Cray and the artist, Ken Gangbar; however, the final form was purely the artists creation.

Additional Information

In the artist's words: "City Freeze" is an abstraction and interpretation of a cityscape consisting of textured porcelain elements suspended by bronze cabling from the ceiling; individually orientated these elements illustrate motion and direction - playing on mass and lightness, linear and organic lines, energy and stillness. There is a boldness in the linear quality of the porcelain rods and their contrast with the bronze cabling and yet at the same time there is a softness created by the material's texture, the subtle orientations and the piece's cascading installation.