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The city’s best kept secret was revealed to a select group of Young Leaders who braved the weather and took a Design Leap! at FORREC’s head office in Toronto. FORREC is a planning and design firm that specializes in the creation of entertainment and leisure environments worldwide. With built projects in over 20 countries, FORREC has proven that the most successful places are ones that make the people in them – and the people that own them – very happy.

The evening began with a Design Leap! presentation of select projects by FORREC President and CEO, Gord Dorrett. With over thirty years of design leadership experience, Gord has been involved in all aspects of the planning and design process. His presentation showcased the breadth of FORREC’s talent and portfolio as innovators of immersive experiences. As Dorrett describes it best, “FORREC designs the places where people go to spend their precious free time – to be entertained, shop, dine, escape of relax.” Following the talk about FORREC’S ability to conceptualize various scales and typologies, a meaningful Q&A also revealed FORREC’s ethical stance on projects that involve captivity, grander visions of Ontario Place, as well as how the studio’s design process works. The centre of creativity at FORREC is their in-house design capability: nine core disciplines, organized around each project, to create and implement bigger, better ideas.

A series of tours were offered through the five distinct studios of the Toronto location: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Interiors, Graphics, and Creative. Touring the studios exposed attendees to FORREC’s complete design process as they walked through design charrette pin ups areas, viewed feature animations of ongoing international retail mixed use developments and experienced the common creative spaces such as their model area, pool table and artist’s gallery.