Giannone Petricone Associates

JUGGERNAUT, TORONTO

Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

It's all about theatrics at this 3,600-square-foot post-production and animation studio in a historic warehouse in downtown Toronto. The highlight is reception, which doubles a lunchroom and meeting space. Rubber-fronted plywood "ribbons" drop from the ceiling via steel suspension rods and morph into built-in seating and countertops, then splice into a wall of Venetian plaster behind the reception desk. "The ribbons are evocative of the company's namesake," principal Ralph Giannone says, "expressing a sense of condensed expansion." Backing up to a wall clad in cobalt-blue ceramic tile, walnut cabinetry is punctured with steel-framed light boxes displaying the studio's custom imagery. Polished-epoxy flooring and stainless work surfaces provide further animation.

Michael Rubin Architects

project Chelsea apartment, New York.

standout Mirrors on either end of this 500-square-foot pied-à-terre reflect the ceiling's 40 maple-plywood fins painted robin's-egg blue; the same material fronts cabinetry in the kitchen and bath, joined by white marble countertops and flooring.