I can’t find Jack Diamond’s house. Back and forth, the car inches along the snow-lined avenue, my eyes scanning for the address, or anything to distinguish the home of the renowned architect. An unruly imagination had built-up preconceptions of a standout facade that only the mind of a veteran building designer could conjure. Something remarkable. …
In an otherwise ordinary downtown Toronto office tower, the Hal Jackman Foundation’s 10th-floor University Avenue suite reaches a level of unlikely wonderment. A museum-like foyer where Persian rugs kiss chevron floors and landscape masterpieces coat the walls is just a prelude to the erstwhile lieutenant-governor of Ontario’s penchant for the arts. The former chairman of …
Amanda Lindhout is standing in front of a predominantly female crowd sharing her harrowing story of survival. The former journalist describes the unsettling 15 and a half months that followed her kidnapping in Somalia. The terror of facing trained AK-47s on that fateful August day in 2008; the long and unnerving 460 days in captivity; …
My journey to become a master sommelier began under the dim lights of an intimate, Bohemian restaurant in Toronto called the Rosedale Diner. A casual conversation with head chef and inspired grape enthusiast Av Atikan intensified when I informed him that I wasn’t fond of white wine. In a breath, he began lining up glasses …
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff is the definition of a woman who does it all. An unparalleled determination and passionate persona makes her the go-to girl in the fashion world. Unlike most success stories in the industry, Wolkoff didn’t eat, sleep and breathe fashion from a young age. “Having two older brothers, I was very much a …
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 …
