Bell’s brainy plan

Bell’s new location at Mississauga, Ont.’s Square One mall boasts a clever ‘left brain/right brain’ layout. One side, representing the creative right brain, is equipped with a bank of monitors so clients can play with Bell applications like VoIP and Sympatico. The other side displays Bell products, representing the logical left brain. And, to get people into the store in the first place, the storefront glazing doubles as a projection screen. David Milne, principal and CD at Toronto-based David Milne Design Associates, worked on the store with client Bruce McLaws, associate director of corporate retail design at Mississauga, Ont.-based Bell Distribution.

Les Touilleurs makes you

feel at home

Perhaps what makes the stellar design of this Montreal kitchen store so remarkable is that it wasn’t done by a pro, but by Louise Savoie, a friend of owner Francois Longpré’s brother. Still, she achieved Longpré’s goal: to make the store look and feel like home. As a result, packaging is conspicuously absent on the display floor. ‘When you pile all those boxes up to the roof, you really lose something,’ explains Longpré, who changes at least one display a week to keep the store fresh for his regulars.

Lift: location, location, location

This Vancouver restaurant scores points for maximizing its prime real estate right on the water with stunning views of Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains. ‘Conceptually, we were going for a million dollar condo, or someone’s yacht,’ explains Anna Szczepaniak, senior interior designer at Vancouver-based design firm SmartDesign. The medium-priced restaurant’s ritzy features include a tropical aquarium, leather seats, retractable glass walls and a wine display with a 42-inch plasma screen TV in the middle. There are two floors, including an upper deck equipped with open fire pits and a rock garden to play up the residential feel. Bob Lindsay and Grant Thomas are Lift’s co-owners.