MartensGroup joins Kasian Architecture
After graduating from the University of Manitoba, interior designer Sharon Martens moved to Calgary and worked for a time with Rice Brydone. In 1990 she started her own firm and built up MartensGroup to be one of the largest and most respected independent interior design studios in Canada.
It has enjoyed a wide range of clients, primarily serving majors in the energy, financial, legal, corporate and government sectors, winning awards including several for the interiors designed for Gowlings and BDP.
Last week MartensGroup, led by principal Sharon and senior associates Kim Green and Douglas Niwa, joined the firm of Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning, and will relocate all staff to Kasian’s offices in Inglewood.
“We are proud to join this wellrecognized international firm,” Martens says. “We’re confident that our clients will benefit from the expanded complement of services offered by the merger.”
They share a similar clientfocused culture and equally value a collaborative work style.
“The addition of MartensGroup to our growing national interior design team reinforces our commitment to interior design,” says Don Kasian, founder and president of Kasian.
Carol Jones, vice-president of interior design, sold her City Interiors to Kasian in 2002. She was attracted by Kasian’s commitment to integration of architecture and interior design, driven by Don Kasian — also a U of M graduate — who understood the benefits of an integrated practice from his first big job in Edmonton with LM Architectural Group.
He moved to Vancouver, purchased a company there and has built up Kasian since 1983 to become one of the world’s top100 integrated design firms.
Kasian opened his office in Calgary in 2000 and last year expanded into Toronto with the acquisition of award-winning interior design firm Modo.
Now with nearly 300 team members, their expertise has also won projects in China, India, and the U.S. and has a staffed office in Doha, Qatar.
Kasian’s portfolio includes buildings in this city such as the South Health Campus, Taylor Family Digital Library, Alberta Children’s Hospital and the Calgary Courts Centre.
The firm is working on the new YW in Inglewood, a parkade in East Village, a number of seniors living residences and a hospital in Yellowknife, a medical health centre in North Battleford and a twin-tower highrise in Kelowna.
All MartensGroup staff have been offered positions at Kasian.
Martens is now a principal of Kasian.
Her senior associates, Green and Niwa, have been welcomed as senior associates with Kasian and her senior interior designer Karen Iredale has been made an associate.
NEWS AND NOTES
The Canadian Culinary Federation of Chefs and Cooks holds its national conference at the Hyatt Calgary May 25-28. The President’s Gala dinner menu is being prepared by a team of city chefs collaborating under the guidance of chef Michael Noble, NOtaBLE and The Nash.
On May 26, a dinner at Bow Valley Ranche will honour two Alberta inductees into the Honour Society of Canada. Werner Kohl is being recognized for his lifetime commitment to the industry, much of it spent at SAIT. Posthumous recognition will be made to Maurice O’Flynn, a driving force behind Team Canada’s first gold medal at the Culinary Olympics.