Allsteel Canadian Showroom

Allsteel Inc. wanted to display its line of workplace furniture to Toronto’s design community in an inspiring setting. The Boiler House in the former Toronto Carpet Factory building filled that bill, with its 60-foot ceilings, leaded glass windows and exposed brick walls.

Designers from figure3 blended the old and the new throughout the three-level space in Toronto’s historic Liberty Village. The reception area, for example, features a round guest seating area housed in the building’s original smokestack, while on the space’s upper level, visitors traverse the factory’s original hardwood floor to get to a glass-sheathed conference room that sits on a cantilevered platform.

Client: Allsteel Inc., Muscatine, Iowa – Timothy Smith, vp, resource center development

Design: figure3, Toronto – Allan Guinan and Christopher Wright, partners, Eric Yorath, senior team lead; Patrick Rechtorik, Steve Tsai, Jacinthe Koddo, project designers

Construction Manager: Rae Brother, Toronto

Outside Design Firms: Jacques Whitford, Sheila Brown, Marham, Ont. (LEED accreditation); Duocom, Richmond Hill, Ont. (lighting); BGM Imaging, Toronto (graphics); Smith and Andersen, Toronto (electrical, communications, mechanical and lighting consultants)

Acrylics: Cyro Industries, Parsippany, N.J.; 3form, Salt Lake City

Flooring: InterfaceFLOR, Toronto; Safecoat, San Diego; Niagara Protective Coatings, Niagara Falls, Ont.

Furniture: Allsteel Inc., Muscatine, Iowa

Laminates: Wilsonart Intl., Temple, Texas

Paints: Benjamin Moore, Montvale, N.J.; ICI, Concord, Ont.; Sherwin Williams, Cleveland

Plastic laminates: Formica, Cincinnati; Panolam, Shelton, Conn.

Solid surfacing: DuPont, Wilmington, Del.

Stone: Marble Trend, Toronto

Tile-trim thresholds: Schluter, St.-Laurent, Que.

Tile: VitroCeram, Toronto; Olympia Tile, Toronto

Stone: Marble Trend, Toronto

Photography: Richard Johnson Photography, Toronto