News
Ronald McDonald House Toronto
New Ronald McDonald House opens in Toronto
“...a remarkable hybrid of grace and civility designed to function as an urban hotel and as a refuge of wellness.”
Lisa Rochion, Globe and Mail
“Oh. My. Gosh. What a privilege it is to live in both the old and now new house. I cannot believe the amount of thought put into every detail, and it’s above and beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined. With happy tears in my eyes, I wish all families that have a chance to stay here best of luck to you and your families, It’s absolutely breathtaking! Wow. Thank you so much!!”
Laura Emeny-Porter, one of the first visitors to stay in the new house
“...it is absolutely beautiful! The colours on the walls especially as seen at night were breathtaking... like they were alive! Congratulations! How all of you managed to have such a large place in the middle of Toronto have such a feel of a quiet oasis is magic!
Carol Houston, Executive Director, Ronald McDonald House Ottawa
Opened in November 2011, the new Ronald McDonald House in downtown Toronto provides accommodation and services for 81 families who travel with their children to Toronto to receive medical care at Sick Kids or Mount Sinai Hospital.
Working closely with Montgomery Sisam Architects over four years, Carlyle Design Associates facilitated a visioning process at project start-up to establish design inspiration and guidelines and continued to provide integrated planning and design for the interiors, furnishings and art.
Bridging with refinement between its institutional neighbours on one side and a 19th century residential neighbourhood to the west, the new building is an urban oasis of calm and refuge, “a house in a garden in the city”, that welcomes families and their seriously ill children of all ages. Communal and social spaces are open and full of light and warm colour. Family suites are visually quiet and intimate. Comfortable and functional, furnishings were carefully mixed together — some designed custom, some specified, and some donated — to support specific activities and to give spaces personality. Works of art throughout the house and gardens were selected or commissioned to inspire moments of contemplation and delight.
Carlyle Design Associates wins ARIDO Project of the Year
Paul Mitchell and Anne Carlyle arido Awards Gala
“Seamless integration of architecture and interiors with a great balance of neutrals and accent colours.” Competition juror
One Kids Place project wins an Award of Excellence and is named Project of the Year at the annual arido Awards gala on September 24, 2010.
Full of daylight and orientation to the outdoors, the welcoming new 41,000 sq. ft. children’s treatment centre is designed with generous circulation spaces to maximize accessibility and encourage movement as integral to therapy and learning activities. Wood columns and soaring ceilings in the celebratory main lobby and corridor are inspired by northern forests. Bright colour is layered judiciously to add energy and assist with orientation and wayfinding. Special installations draw upon nature to delight and inform: an aquarium, a green living wall, lyrical suspended panels, and tactile wood discovery walls.
Continuous close collaboration with Paul Mitchell and his team at Mitchell Architects in North Bay fostered warm, engaging and cohesive design solutions.
Danish Design Tour
The Royal Danish Playhouse
In February 2011, Anne was invited to participate in a design tour of Denmark organized jointly by the Danish Trade Council and the Interior Designers of Canada. While touring extraordinary places—public, cultural and commercial—several of the tour hosts said, in various ways, “Design is in our dna.”
Design is completely integral to the Danish approach to thinking, making and living. Beautiful, durable, sustainable and human places and products abound. The Danish government and manufacturers seem to have decided, quite strategically, to work together to build on mid-twentieth century design successes, and to leverage design in order to thrive in an increasingly competitive and global world. Not forgetting the experience of fabulous food or the inspiration of cyclists and their routes everywhere throughout both the countryside and cities, Canada has much to learn from this tiny country of some 5 million people.
Sojourn in Mendocino
Mendocino on the headland
For a second year away from late winter in Ottawa, Anne and her husband Sean Moore spent a month living, working and playing in the village of Mendocino, California. Three and a half hours north of San Francisco on the California coast, Mendocino is set in a state park and designated a special historic reserve. Struggling economically now, like so much of California outside Silicon Valley, it was built and boomed during the gold and logging rushes in the late 19th century. Today, people are drawn to Mendocino’s extraordinary natural beauty, the charming character of its painted wooden houses and civic buildings, its local slow food culture (part of the Alice Waters sustaining ripple effect) and its cultural activities—material arts at the Mendocino Art Centre, the annual Music Festival and community theatre and opera.
In a magnetic setting where the land meets the open ocean, this special place of wind and waves, sun and fog, tidal pools and towering trees inspires pausing and reflection. Even in the midst of continuous email flow and shop drawing reviews, and good times filled with family and friends, time slows and makes way for renewal.
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Detail of glass mural, Waterloo Regional Museum
Anne, a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts since 2006, attended the Academy’s Annual General Assembly in Kitchener-Waterloo in May, 2011. Highlights included a day-long symposium on art and technology with artist participants from across the country sharing their thoughtful, creative explorations at both the leading and back ends of technological development; visits and receptions at local galleries—Harbinger Gallery, University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery—exhibiting the works of rca members both new and long-standing; a tour of the new Waterloo Regional Museum designed by Moriyama and Teshima, an enchanting building that is a metaphor for the meeting of regional history (think Mennonites in horse-drawn buggies, covered bridges and quilts) with cutting edge research and development (think complexity and quantum computing).