There’s a subtle energy circulating through the reaches of Mantella Venture Partners. Above a clandestine lobby, unremarkable to indifferent eyes, behind glass walls of small offices and the juxtaposing rows of computer-filled tables, the busy hands of technology start-up teams fine-tune their digital applications. Some frenetically rap keys. Others point to lines of code, picking …
It all began on the second storey of a cosy Park Street flat in New Haven, Conn. It was there, in the heart of Yale’s university district, that master’s student Marianne McKenna foreshadowed her future as one of North America’s most influential architects. The prophetic moment presented itself in a simple sketch she designed for …
On October 8, 2012, the Canadian arts community lost one of its most beloved and generous supporters. “I remember how his eyes lit up,” says Karen Kain, retired ballerina and the National Ballet of Canada’s artistic director, of her first encounter with Walter Carsen. He reminisced about his experience at a traditional geisha house during …
Bruce Springsteen’s raging ’80s song “Cover Me” sets the stage for a lyrical morning. The Boss’s baritone vocals are crooning through the sound system of metal mogul Alex Shnaider’s sprawling Bridle Path abode as he insouciantly poses for his cover shot. This steely parallel wasn’t planned, but as Shnaider’s story proves: not many things in …
Life is what you make it, and for Zahra Al-Harazi this proverb is emphatically clear. While many coast through existence like Sunday afternoon window-shoppers, this entrepreneur embraces every opportunity. She marches to the beat of her own drum, moves with insatiable drive and tenacious precision, and is enjoying every step of the journey. “Being an …
It’s been said that music is food to the heart. Leaning against a lengthy bar in Toronto’s Nota Bene Restaurant, Alexander Neef readily sips on a glass of cool water. A welcome indulgence, after having walked through a bustling Queen West absorbed by an unbearable haze of heat. Neef is noticeably in his element, surrounded …
Marco Guglietti’s home says a lot about the man who lives inside. The family crest atop an Indiana limestone archway offers insight into a unique pedigree; the old-world church bell that chimes three times at noon in his Giacomo Bianchi courtyard vocalizes the importance of preserving the past, and the vacant home next door is …
They say it’s all in the details, and this business of particulars is what Treasure Hill Homes prides itself on. Set across prominent areas in the GTA, beautiful, functional homes for the modern family blend harmoniously with the surrounding locale. “We’re creating communities where we want people to feel that where they live stands out …
Veteran home builder Mario Cortellucci knows a community when he sees one, but it doesn’t necessarily have to exist yet. “It’s in your mind, in your dreams. At night you fall asleep and it comes to you, and the vision is sometimes that you see the city itself in front of you.” This innate ability …
Isadore Sharp settles into a settee in the swanky Four Seasons Presentation Centre, looking the part in a power suit that hardly conceals his unassuming aura. Over the last 50 years, the Canadian-based hotelier has blazed a legendary trail, single-handedly innovating the hotel industry by stocking hotel rooms with shampoo bottles, soft toilet paper, thick …
