Corporate
Our corporate work is designed and built to the highest sustainable standard. It has an eye for style married with an enduring quality and a solid understanding of the practical needs of an effective workplace. Our goal is to create a rich spatial experience, using green initiatives to achieve better air quality, more natural light and fresh air for increased comfort and health. We also strive to ensure our work environments easily accommodate and facilitate change, allowing space for the future growth, reconfiguration and development of the corporation.
There is no distinction between “architecture” and “interior design”. For us, all aspects of design are equally important and engaging. We see the opportunity to provide interior fit-out design as a natural extension of our work as architects and as our duty to provide a unique expression of the company’s brand. These projects include the BMW Canada Headquarters, President’s Choice Financial Services, Home Depot Canada and Loblaw Digital.
Projects
BMW Group Canada, Loblaw Companies Limited, PC Bank, Loblaw Digital
Residential
Private residences created by the Finlayson Practice are carefully conceived designs that exhibit a high level of craft with a seamless relationship to their context. The Klein House, the Principal’s House at Branksome Hall and Erin Acres are excellent examples. The Practice is also exploring precedent-setting flexible designs for downtown living that will house families on small downtown lots.
Projects
20 Meredith Crescent, 1621 Dundas Street West, 326 ½ Howland, Klein Residence, 504 Wellington Street West, Branksome Hall Residence, Erin Acres, Yolles House, 620 King Street West
Institutional
The award-winning CNIB Centre and several projects with both the Toronto District School Board and Branksome Hall illustrate the flexibility and design excellence of The Finlayson Practice. The school projects provided an opportunity to breathe new life into some of the oldest school buildings in Toronto while creating some incredible educational spaces that address the needs of the 21st century student.
Projects
CNIB, TDSB, Branksome Hall, OCADU, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Ministry of Education – Provincial Schools (William Ross MacDonald School)
Urban Design and Master Planning
The Finlayson Practice has extensive experience with institutions and municipalities producing visionary master plans and working with authorities to get projects approved and built. We call this visionary pragmatism. We take projects from the initial steps of client/community engagements right through to completion.
Our Campus planning and design processes seek to establish an understanding of the principles by which a campus will change over time physically, economically and socially. The social/cultural component is the most elusive, but the most important to understand as it is what makes people want to occupy a place and what ultimately activates the space. We have insight and understand this dynamic between buildings, spaces and circulations routes and how they can be deployed/integrated to elevate the work beyond mere placement of buildings and give meaning to a place.
Projects
CNIB, Branksome Hall, OCADU, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Ministry of Education – Provincial Schools (William Ross MacDonald School), TDSB at Bloor and Dufferin, Bridgewater Wharf, Trinity College
