Soaring 30-foot floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides of Toronto’s latest hot spot, Aria Restaurant, offer views onto the bustling Air Canada Centre and Maple Leaf Square. Opened in March 2011, the restaurant provides a cool and contemporary respite from the hubbub of the city’s Financial District, with a sense of intimacy throughout the 110-seat Italian eatery from owners Guido Saldini and Elena Morelli, proprietors of Noce Restaurant, another Italian restaurant in Toronto. Delivering an aura of lightness and drama is the stainless steel wire mesh window treatments from Cascade Coil Drapery Inc., Portland, Ore., located against the restaurant’s south wall.
Cascade Coil supplied 1,116 square feet of the wire mesh that during the day offers a straightforward view outside, but at night, shimmering glimpses of downtown filter in, enhancing the restaurant’s sophisticated, yet welcoming, ambiance. Becoming almost linen-like after dark, the wire mesh provides a subdued backdrop to the Moooi sparkling globe chandeliers that grace the bar and seating areas. A ribbon-like dark wood sculpture by Canadian artist Dennis Lin floats above the chandeliers, twisting and turning in stark relief against the curtains. Aria also features the commissioned oil paintings of another Canadian artist, Laura Wood.
Aria’s architect and designer, Urszula Tokarska of Stephen R. Pile Architect Inc., Toronto, says that in addition to diffusing light and facilitating views of the city, Cascade Coil’s stainless steel drapery allows for air circulation across a series of radiant heat convectors that are situated along the glazing perimeters of the space, helping to maximize Aria’s energy efficiency.
Aria Restaurant, Toronto
Owners: Guido Saldini and Elena Morelli
Architect: Stephen R. Pile Architect Inc., Toronto
Wire mesh: Cascade Coil Drapery Inc., Portland, Ore., www.cascadecoil.com
