Of all the recognition that one could garner, nothing quite compares to being honoured on home turf. After 35 years of creating some of the most captivating hotels, restaurants and residences around the world, the Canadian design firm Yabu Pushelberg is being celebrated this weekend by Design Exchange, the only museum dedicated to design in their hometown of Toronto. Past honorees have included the artist/writer Douglas Coupland and Byron and Dexter Peart of the fashion label Want les Essentials de la Vie.
Both Ontario natives, George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg first met as students at Ryerson University in Toronto. They went on to pursue different paths until a stroke of fate brought them back together by way of a shared office space. Collaborations ensued and before long, they decided to join their efforts both professionally and personally. More than three decades later, their passion for design continues to inform their projects and their work.
These days, the Yabu Pushelberg aesthetic – a refined mix of clean bold lines and sumptuously textured materials – has come to symbolize sophistication and luxury. Restrained forms are infused with buoyancy, thanks to gestural, individual flourishes, such as the metal screens in the Park Hyatt New York, or the statuesque, gilt mosaic tiled columns of The Edition in Miami. In furniture form, Yabu Pushelberg favours elegant silhouettes that still invite the user to explore and interact with them – a balance that’s not often achieved.
In a pre-emptive move to this weekend’s celebrations, we invite you to join us in toasting some of the firm’s greatest hits over the years.
Four Seasons Hotel, Toronto.
A room at the Park Hyatt in New York City.
The Ports 1961 boutique in Shanghai.
The concept boutique, Siwilai, in Bangkok.
'Blink' furniture collection for Stellarworks
A room (left) and the bar (right) at The Edition Hotel in London.
The firm's Boomerang sofa for fellow Canadian, Avenue Road
Primehouse restaurant in New York City
Yabu Pushelberg's headquarters in Toronto.
The duo behind the celebrated design firm Glenn Pushelberg and George Yabu.
INFORMATION
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Saint Laurent's Anthony Vaccarello curates four rare Charlotte Perriand reissuesThese lesser-seen Charlotte Perriand furniture designs are reissued in a limited edition and on display at Paris' Galerie Patrick Seguin (until 22 November 2025)
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Viewers are cast as voyeurs in Tai Shani’s crimson-hued London exhibitionBritish artist Tai Shani creates mystical other worlds through sculpture, performance and film. Step inside at Gathering
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Explore the riches of Morse House, the Canadian modernist gem on the marketMorse House, designed by Thompson, Berwick & Pratt Architects in 1982 on Vancouver's Bowen Island, is on the market – might you be the new custodian of its modernist legacy?
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Omer Arbel reflects on 20 years of ‘making materials uncomfortable’ to generate novel formsAfter almost two decades’ developing dazzling sculptural lighting and buildings, the designer and Bocci co-founder discusses the ‘constructed discomfort’ that allows his studio to innovate
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Yabu Pushelberg talk design and living at the beachMolteni & C has released a new short film in its ‘House of Molteni’ series, featuring Canadian designers Yabu Pushelberg talking design, inspiration and their Amagansett beach house
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World View: Letter from CanadaThe World View series shines light on the creativity and resilience of designers around the world as they confront the challenges wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic. Working with our international contributors, we reach out to creative talents to ponder the power of design in difficult times and share messages of hope. As Laura May Todd discovers in Toronto and Montreal, designers are staying connected digitally, setting up home studios, and finding new appreciation for tactility and self-reliance
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Ivystudio’s clean design for White’s laundry in Montreal -
Raw nature: Martha Sturdy distills the Pacific Northwest into object form
