Christina Zeidler of The Gladstone Hotel

There are two venerable cultural landmarks–institutions, really– on Queen Street West. One is the self-consciously glamorous Drake Hotel (about which we’ll be posting material here shortly) and the other is the no less glamorous but possibly more culturally earnest…

The Art of Mate Drinking

The graceful and sociable art of drinking Mate — the traditional South American infused tea made from steeped leaves and twigs of the yerba mate plant — is so complex, one really needs instruction of what is actually a whole…

WORLDFinger in Four Questions

We talked recently, at the Art Condos Testing Centre in Toronto, with Art Condos developer Gary Silverberg about his cutting-edge WORLDFinger media control system.

WORLDFinger—which is an elegant, highly sophisticated tool for managing all your media devices from one…

The Way We Were & The Way We Are Now

While the Art Condos building was still rising from its own excavation, we placed a camera in the hand of crane operator Manuel Fernandez, and persuaded him to lean out into space and take some photos of the building from…

Woolfitt’s: Staffed by Artists, for Artists

Ben Woolfitt has been a painter for forty years and, for the same amount of time, has run his famous art supply store on Queen Street West. We talked to him recently about both his art and his business.…

Consider Art Condos Officially Topped Off!

Yesterday the Art Condos team officially celebrated the building’s topping off. In accordance with tradition, the architects, developer, site super and the whole construction team were present to congratulate each other on a job well done. While there’s obviously a tremendous amount…

Arthur Condo’s Second Video – We Have a Roof!

Arthur Condo’s 2nd video expresses his delight that the building–to which he will move soon–now has a roof! His video outlines the entire structure, which he now sees as a complete package.

Green Thumb: The Mikado

Always on the lookout for house plants that grow well in condos, we found this spiky little number at Poppies on Queen West. The plant is called a Mikado–like Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta-emperor of Japan–or, less poetically, a bog…

Art We Love: Tidal Waves and Sea Bathers by Y.M. Whelan

By the time you read this, Y.M. Whelan’s sparkling exhibition at the Fran Hill Show Room–called Book of Dreams: New Paintings–will probably be officially over, but gallerist Fran Hill will still be happy to show you the work, which…

Design We Love: Is Driftwood Making a Comeback?

We remember (admittedly, it was quite a long time ago) when driftwood was considered to be a really chic design accent–people were putting soft, sinuous hunks of it here and there (on mantlepieces, on bookshelves, in the corners of rooms).…