Almost eight years ago I announced that Karen Robertson had opened her own KLR Design Group studio in a house she had purchased; a nice creative space enhanced by a pleasant garden.
It was a great spot for her staff of two, but a steady increase in clients and projects has increased her staff to eight designers, plus support staff, and created the need to move to bigger premises.
Robertson still has a view of a garden and also boasts of working out of a penthouse suite.
The garden is Central Memorial Park and the view is over 12th Avenue from the 2,500-square-foot second (top) floor of Lacey Court, the offices of John Lackey, consultant and honorary consul-general of Thailand.
It’s close to her downtown clients, steps away from River Cafe’s casual cousin Boxwood, and food trucks park right across the street.
Robertson has 25 years of experience in her profession, working here with Sizeland Evans, Vancouver-based SSDG Interiors when it opened a Calgary office, and with the interiors department of Gibbs Gage Architects.
But she always wanted her own firm and it has been a particularly exciting time of late for KLR, with Robertson being approved as a Licensed Interior Designer in Alberta and taking a recent, very informative trip to Germany on the invitation of Armstrong World Industries, the company that provides much of the sheet flooring she regularly specifies.
Armstrong invited Robertson as the only Calgary interior designer, along with a Vancouver and a Seattle architect, to tour two of its plants and learn about new products.
She was proud to tour the linoleum plant and talk Calgary as our South Health Campus used the largest single order of linoleum in Armstrong’s history.
KLR recently completed the interiors for a 10,000-square-foot expansion of the EFW Radiology rooms in Cambrian Place and, thanks to a long-standing relationship with Fluor Canada, designed interiors for its new expansion into 60,000 square feet in Quarry Park.
Dan Velcic is KLR’s retail expert who has worked on the design for the interiors for the Airport Duty Free Shop and Sunglass Hut at Edmonton International as well as Hudson News in the Vancouver airport.
An interesting challenge was for KLR’s specialty design group in providing the interior design work for the new science lab wing at Webber Academy.
Students were invited to the design presentations to give their input into what they thought was needed in the 10,000-square-foot facility that was delivered with custom-made laboratory benches made in Italy.
Other recent projects include providing the furniture for the common areas in Cardell Place and the interiors for Talisan Centre.
Robertson changed her business cards with her new address, but is reprinting them thanks to an exciting recently completed partnership.
KLR Design Group is now a member of ONE Global Design Platform, a partnership of 14 similarly successful North American design companies able to provide coast-to-coast services for businesses seeking consistent interior design solutions in multiple markets.
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