Take a Look Inside the Best Killer Spaces of 2018
From the quiet retreat of tree-laden office space in Toronto to the tallest tower peeking through the San Francisco clouds, Techvibes profiled some of the most beautiful and visually stunning offices in North America over the last year. Take a look at some of the offices we had a chance to wander through and admire over the last 12 months.
Article
Vancouver’s Article calls a 115,000 square foot space just outside the downtown core home, with over 200 employees working together to push the future of furniture forward. The company has over 1,500 SKUs on their platform and they plan to hit over $200 million in sales by the end of this year.
The office boasts a musical jam space, bike storage, and open space flooded by natural light. Article’s employees (Particles, as they’re known) live by five mottos: Be Direct, Be Better, Be Good, Be Genuine, Be Adventurous.
“We’re expanding in every aspect of our business: We’re hiring more staff, we’re increasing our product range and we’re developing new technologies to make the process for buying designer furniture more efficient,” says Aamir Baig, Article’s co-founder.
Salesforce
If you’re in San Francisco, it’s impossible to miss this Killer Space. Standing tall at 61 stories, it’s the tallest building in the city, and it sets the pace for how this global company’s 32,000 total employees will move into the future of CRM.
This new tower is home to everything from the CEO Marc Benioff’s office to smaller breakout teams of marketers and sales teams. The Salesforce tower is a space the company will use to control its global operations.
“With the tower, and our real estate in general, you see so many of our values come to life and be embodied within tangible real estate,” says Elizabeth Pinkham, Salesforce’s EVP of global real estate. “It’s our commitment to mindfulness, collaboration, culture, and sustainability. You can all see it in different parts of our tower.”
LoyaltyOne
Based in Toronto, LoyaltyOne is the mastermind behind some of North America’s most well-known loyalty programs. This gorgeous 200,000 square foot space came to life through several different forms of recommendation: LoyaltyOne interviewed employees, performed camera journalling, held focus groups, analyzed high activity areas and more. They finally settled on an activity-based workspace with a 1:1.25 sharing space ratio.
“Our vision is an office of the future that reflects our culture, values and brand—and makes associates proud to work here,” says Bryan Pearson, LoyaltyOne’s CEO.
RL Solutions
RL Solutions is a Toronto-based healthcare giant you may not have heard of, but there’s a good chance you’ve been in a hospital using their platform. With over 2,000 clients including Sick Kids Hospital and the entire country of Denmark, the company specializes in streamlining patient feedback and incident reporting.
Their 41,000 square foot office is reminiscent of a quaint and relaxing cabin in the woods, featuring wood paneling and camp paraphernalia all around. RL Solutions has all the tech standards, from a fully-stocked kitchen to ping pong tables—but be sure you check out the pub. Yes, a fully-realized pub.
Shopify
As one of Canada’s biggest tech darlings, it’s no surprise Shopify also has an outpost in San Francisco. This office is actually the home of one of the company’s acquisitions, Kit. Here, the team works to build their smart marketing assistant for Shopify’s 600,000-plus stores.
“When we started, our mission was not to be acquired but to help small business owners,” says Michael Perry, the founder of Kit. “We were lucky that was a magnified mission for Shopify, so we were able to neatly align with them because we were both trying to do the same thing in different ways, and we were more powerful together than apart.”
BBTV
Although they might not be as common a name as YouTube, BBTV has almost as much reach. Every third video you see on YouTube is associated with BBTV in one form or another—an impressive stat for this Vancouver platform that manages content, creators, and partnerships with some of digital entertainment’s biggest names.
The workspace is modern and comes with a distinct show businesses flare, which of course means a preview theatre. “You become what you believe” has been in the email signature of BBTV’s founder and CEO Shahrzad Rafati ever since she started the company, and the space definitely embodies her motto.
BlueCat
Based in Toronto, BlueCat offers trademarked DNS products that allow enterprises to manage their networks with ease. Their office backs onto an unassuming golf course, offering picturesque views and a distinct connection to nature.
The 3,000 square foot cafe is one of the office’s defining features, bringing each employee together for a snack, some coffee (fro one of six different roasters!) and more. If that’s not enough workers can access free massages, on-site flu clinics, open exercise classes, subsidized gym memberships, and a generous vacation allowance.
