Tough timing
The security procedures at the airport required lengthy approvals for each delivery and a security escort was needed at all times. The majority of the deliveries and the installation work was handled during evening hours to minimize interruptions, as more than 87,000 people pass through the concourse every day.
“Shipping, moving and installation were carefully planned with custom-made carts,” says Allen-Milne. “Spider lifts were required to suspend the fins from outside the hoarding provided by the general contractor. This allowed work to continue during the day behind the hoarding, while the fins were installed outside the hoarding at night, once all passengers had left.”
Restaurant renewal
Completed in June 2013, Apropos is the second new-concept restaurant Eventscape has fabricated as part of ongoing renovations and upgrades to Pearson, one of North America’s busiest airports.
LEDs were incorporated into the end fins for the restaurant’s logo signs.
Icrave, meanwhile, has been working with OTG since 2011 on the entire dining program, with the goal of creating a total of 13 new restaurant, bar and market concepts throughout Pearson’s gate hold areas. This has involved removing the airport’s traditional gate hold chairs and replacing them with hospitality-style seating, fabricated and installed by Eventscape, with Apple iPads for ordering food and drinks (and checking flight information) at every seat. More than 2,000 seats and 785 tables will be installed by January 2014.
“When we work with Eventscape, they care about the final product as much as we do,” says Gregory Merkel, Icrave’s senior project manager and designer. “I don’t have to worry because they have our back. And while their engineering and shop drawings are the best we have dealt with, they are also designers at heart, so they aren’t making fabrication decisions based solely on data or numbers. They help us make our projects better, which is invaluable.”
While Icrave is based in the U.S., founder Lionel Ohayon and partner Siobhan Barry are both from Toronto and met while studying architecture at Ontario’s University of Waterloo. Yet, the Pearson restaurants represent the first project they have ever completed in Canada.
With files from Toronto-based Eventscape and Icrave. For more information, visit www.eventscape.net and www.icrave.com.
