e are pleased to offer you a peek at some of our work over the last 20 years. While we are currently busy, the material here does not yet reflect some of our most recent work (maybe we've been so busy it's been hard to keep track). We plan to correct this imbalance in the near future and we urge you to check back from time to time, as we will add photos and descriptions of our work--commercial and residential, small and large-scale. Some of the work you will find soon will include some of the recent work we have done for the Lake Louise Railway Station, the Chateau Lake Louise, and the Post Hotel.

In the meantime, we can offer a glimpse at some of the work we completed in the 1980's, and 1990's in Victoria, British Columbia, Alberta, Michigan, and Japan. During those two decades, we worked on hotels, restaurants, pubs, night clubs, retail outlets, offices, homes, and even a number of gardens and outdoor decks when the environment and customer called for it.

What we hope you'll find is what we've endeavoured to deliver to our customers--a complete sympathy for the customer's design needs and existing environment. With every project, we try to produce work that truly belongs--whether the product is a complete home renovation and the envrionment is a densely treed lot overlooking the ocean or the product is a chair and the environment is the customer's living room, complete with sofas, chairs, rugs, and lamps.

For example, the photo above shows the Kanaya Hotel in Nikko, Japan. Artwood Design was contracted to design and build a feature staircase that greets guests when they arrive. The hotel owner was impressed with the work Artwood Design had completed in the Post Hotel and, as a result, we used Yellow Cedar to create a subtly Canadian staircase with the just enough formality to impress guests. The staircase material augments the hotel's exterior, which also features yellow cedar. One of the features of the staircase is a hand carved owl that sits at the top, observing the activity below.

Another example of Artwood's penchant for blending work into its surroundings comes from "Inglenook House," a 1911 Arts and Crafts home. During renovation, many beams and some of the original stairs had to be removed. Artwood Design used the original structural beams and the thick first-growth stair planks to build a new feature for the home's new library. The feature replaced an original fireplace mantle and houses the owner's collection of books and stereo equipment. Not realizing the millwork was new, some visitors to the home have asked how the owners got the "original" millwork to fit stereo equipment. That, we think, is the best compliment we can get.