ARIDO Awards celebrates York University Markham Campus for winning interior design
By David Yin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Iva Radikova and her team at Diamond Schmitt won an ARIDO award on Sept. 17 for their interior design of York University Markham Campus.
ARIDO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario) hosts the awards annually to celebrate interior design achievements.
Radikova and her team won the award in the “Learn” category – focused on educational centres – along with Chen Cohen for Centennial College’s A-Building Expansion and Elizabeth Ormonde for Gan Shalom Preschool.
ARIDO awarded 19 projects in total out of 36 finalists. Its other categories were “Work,” “Eat + Stay,” “Care,” “Impact,” “Distinct,” and “Craft.”
Radikova explained that designing the campus’ interior space involved several components. She said that the project involved cross-collaboration with multiple professionals – such as engineers, landscapers, and First Nations experts – and that her team needed to fulfil everyone’s potential needs for accessibility and inclusive learning.
In addition, she said that her team had to work with many different types of furniture that needed to have multiple functions. For example, she said that the campus contains many tables that can rotate and combine for collaborative studying.
Radikova said that she intended for the campus’ interior to be inspiring and inclusive for its students and staff. She used its atrium as an example, which includes accessible areas, acoustic design, natural lighting, fluid forms, and red furniture that represent York University’s branding.
“Every design starts with compassion, and that’s probably what the very difference between design and architecture is,” she said.
Radikova said that winning the ARIDO award was a significant achievement for Diamond Schmitt because it only debuted its interior design department around eight to 10 years ago, making it fairly new for the company.
“I still find it very interesting that a lot of people still don’t know that we have a very strong interior design department within Diamond Schmidt, and I hope this is one of the venues that will give us publicity,” she said.
Diamond Schmitt is an architecture firm established in Toronto in 1975. It consists of over 300 employees and has additional offices in Vancouver, Calgary, and New York City.
To learn more about the 2025 ARIDO Awards, head to arido.ca/events/2025-awards-gala.
Photo: ARIDO Awards celebrates York University Markham Campus for winning interior design. (David Yin photo)