Designer has passion for castoffs
Lis an interior designer with a passion for using things that may be rejected by others to create attractive work spaces.
Her own office is a wonderful example of “taking a sow’s ear and turning it into a silk purse” — it caused me to smile as I climbed the wooden stairs to look around the new home of Reimagine Interiors above Hearth Fireplace Depot on Memorial Drive N.E.
Gurevitch grew up and had her early schooling in Grande Prairie where she began to pursue her interest in visual fine arts. She moved to Calgary to earn her interior design degree at Mount Royal University and then moved to Edmonton to join Manasc Isaac Architects.
It was a good decision as the firm is at the forefront of initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a pioneer of integrated design process in North America, and has a focus on sustainable buildings.
Manasc Isaac allowed Gurevitch to return to Grande Prairie to learn construction from the ground up as project manager on an affordable housing complex and in the redesign of an early 1900s heritage building into a city-owned centre for the arts.
Those projects completed, she was transferred to Calgary to project manage the firm’s interesting challenge in designing and building the city’s new Emergency Operations Centre,
Manasc Isaac had received rave reviews — along with partner Sturgess Architects — for the design of the Water Centre and was awarded the city’s 50,000- square-foot disaster services unit and state-ofthe-art operations room that was built two storeys under Rotary Park.
Gurevitch, who had been busy designing interiors in Edmonton was again asked to don steel-toed boots and a hard hat and for the four years her office was on-site.
Principal architect Vivian Manasc had spent a con- siderable amount of time in Calgary, and on seeing the benefits of opening an office here, searched with Gurevitch for the ideal office space.
Under the name of Reimagine Interiors it has settled into a completely redesigned 3,500 square feet of space in the former home of the Calgary Folk Festival. An older building, it looks out onto the Bow River and is minutes from downtown.
An open space, Gurevitch has transformed it into a great example of what can be done to create new spaces in an old building using aged materials.
After many visits to Reclaimed Trading Company she installed a raised floor of old fir planking from a 1910 cannery in B.C. over the plain plywood surface, exposed character roof beams, and converted large art carrying cases into work tables.
“Any space can be made better and more productive” she says, “and more energy efficient.” That’s the type of challenge she enjoys and while still working with the interiors department of the Edmonton office is bidding on work here that she expects will result in hiring up to six other designers in the coming year.
Improving corporate performances in downtown offices, health care and restaurants are in her sights, but she does love the idea of converting older spaces where operable windows and lots of natural light can be mixed with flexible, collaborative workspaces.
I like the name Uptown 17th, but the BRZ has commissioned The Bespoke Agency to develop a new branding and marketing strategy.
The pedestrian friendly district has undergone changes this past year with new restaurants, Hanson Square, another new building under construction on 17th Avenue and exciting plans for Mount Royal Village and the area around the Devenish Building. Come February we may see a name change!
Being a lover of paper and all things printed I’m not much for emailed Christmas and New Year’s cards. But I did appreciate the one from Dialog that said instead of designing and printing its usual elaborately produced calendar the architectural firm has donated 108,000 kilograms of food — enough to feed approximately 80,000 people.
Dennis O’Neill is now chairman of King’s Group of Companies and CEO of Celtic Relocation Services. He has appointed as presidents and CEO’s Randy Hounjet, at King’s Transfer Van Lines; Brenda Mitchell, King’s Global Forwarding; and Craig Moore, King’s Office Moving.