IN Toronto magazine

DESIGN:

The Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto offers some tall competition to all the design events in the city in January

This month’s big design fair IDS12 and its alternative TO DO gets some tall competition with the 57-storey Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto scheduled to open on Tue, Jan 31 (trumptorontohotel.com).

Located at the corner of Bay and Adelaide, Donald Trump and family’s first property in Canada is designed by Zeidler Roberts Partnership, with interiors by II by IV. “Expect the unexpected,” says Dan Menchions, who founded II by IV in 1990 with Keith Rushbrook. But Menchions cautions not to equate the hotel and tower’s look with the flamboyant developer and erstwhile US politician known as The Donald.

“It has heritage, that feeling of being here for a while,” says Menchions. “The look, the finishes are all luxurious.” The wall mosaic at the car entrance, for example, consists of 500,000 handmade tiles which took a crew of 20 three months to make. It’s designed by local artist Stephen Andrews.

With Toronto projects ranging from the grandly art-deco-esque South Beach condos to the hipster cool of Minto King West, it’s impossible to generalize about II by IV’s aesthetic, except for maybe a keen eye for dramatic possibilities. “We do lighting incredibly well,” says Menchions, “and that’s where a sense of drama, of theatre, comes into play.” One of the most dramatic spaces is sure to be Trump’s Stock restaurant (pictured; stockrestaurant.com) on the 31st floor run by executive chef Todd Clarmo, formerly of that other towering restaurant, Canoe.