Activating the central public spine of the development and connecting the waterfront promenade with Queen’s Quay, this multi-component artwork metaphorically connects Lake to City, with references to weather systems and paperwork. The dynamic and lyrical forms of the artwork are counterpoints to the dramatic, rectilinear architecture.
This multi component, architecturally integrated artwork recognizes the unique opportunity to activate the streetscape through the creation of an urban vitrine which presents a city sized display case directly adjacent to the street. Through the three story glazed space of the lobby, interior is projected to exterior such that the entire artwork is presented as a multi-plane composition.
“The immersive artwork transforms the glass box lobby into a living vitrine – an ecosystem of complex and meaningful social, object, and atmospheric relationships. Elements of the artwork evoke planetary constellations and surface structures, abstracted and realized in industrial materials referencing consumer, household objects.” — Josephine Meckseper
Public art strategy, artist procurement, client and stakeholder engagement and liaison for this multi-million dollar, multi-component, highly integrated public artwork programme.
Steve Driscoll’s epic, episodic glass artwork activates the ground floor and sky lobby while visible from Bay Street.
Nicolas Baier’s interactive and dynamic artwork animates the elevated bridge spanning between CIBC Square and Scotiabank Arena.
Emerging from two portals at 150 and 155 Redpath, this multi-component artwork, titled “STARGATE”, animates the neighbourhood with a crew of intergalactic 3D characters in varying states of materialization. These characters appear on the scene, in a moment frozen in time. Is it a dance, is it a standoff, or is it something else entirely? Transforming a busy and populated corner of Canada’s largest city into a window of outerspace, STARGATE’s colourful protagonists tower over several smaller lively coharts, creating a theatrical scene.
“STARGATE is not only a part of 150 and 155 Redpath, it interacts with all of the public space around it. The characters are approaching the traffic on the street, so all who pass by will find themselves in the middle of this dramatic scene.” — Anna Passakas and Radek Kudlinski
“Grove is a composition of parts from a reproduction, iconic, 19th Century bench, spliced together and recombined into configurations suggestive of growth, mutation and wildness. The artwork is a world unto its own; unclear if playful objects and local fauna have been caught within the imitation fern fronds or are products of the benches themselves, suggesting magical powers of mimicry.” — Artists’ Statement
This artwork is a true collaboration between artist, Nicolas Baier and architect, ARK Architects Inc. The entirety of the building façade, comprised of black, coated aluminum panels, is the site of the artwork. Through a meticulous mapping process, images relative to the artist’s practice, were incised into the panels, revealing the aluminum substrate to create a striking and graphic interpretation of “academic ivy”.
“The artwork for York University represents a network, a weaving, branching system that simultaneously evokes references to ivy league university buildings and to cutting edge scientific research, performed within these same campuses. The artwork takes its inspiration from a classic tree structure that evokes the great tradition of knowledge institutions.” — Nicolas Baier
Photos courtesy of the artist
The ribbon of the carved limestone frieze clusters and relaxes as it flows along its path, mimicking hand written script. Rather than singling out any specific language, the “writing” implies shapes and forms of multiple languages. The ribbon imagery, continued in the bronze sconces, playfully casts and captures light. Words and ribbon imagery are commonly used in historic carved friezes, as evidenced in many of the nearby heritage buildings.
Photography: Peter Legris.
Images courtesy Carl Tacon and Lyn Carter.
This highly integrated artwork activates the continuous canopy of the building as a means of enhancing the pedestrian experience along the two streetscapes of the project. Dichroic glass fins, held together by a fabric-inspired aluminum framing system, capture available light, transmitting an ever-changing spectrum to passersby.
“Urban Fabric is inspired by the architecture of the building; the grid of glass and steel reminiscent of woven fabric. In repeated fragments, dichroic glass panels reflect the surroundings, weaving reflections of the city.” — Catherine Widgery
Axial to Mercer Street and framing the entrance of the Bisha Hotel, two large, polychrome, bronze heads — one with facial features defined, one without — welcome guests of the Hotel, while providing figurative animation to the adjacent streetscape.
The kinetic installation is a homage to French film director Jacques Tati (1907−1982) and his movie classic ‘Mon Oncle’ (1958), a choreographed comedy about man’s confusion and adaption in the age of early modernism.
“Monocle creates a playful catalyst to reflect on our struggles to live up to the ideal of a modern urban lifestyle, on the nature of technological advance, on the notion of surveillance and the relationship between private and public space.”
Artist’s Statement
