{"id":197,"date":"2016-06-16T23:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T03:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.40.65.116\/?p=197"},"modified":"2018-02-23T16:51:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T21:51:16","slug":"killer-spaces-shopify-torontos-brick-and-beam-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/magazine\/killer-spaces-shopify-torontos-brick-and-beam-masterpiece","title":{"rendered":"Shopify Toronto’s Brick and Beam Masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

This entrepreneurial juggernaut\u2019s success story is top of mind as the elevator climbs to the top floor office in Toronto\u2019s trendy brick and beam Technology District.<\/span><\/p>\n

The doors opened to reveal a beautiful, bright, and aspirational space matched by the warm greeting at reception.\u00a0<\/span>The inconspicuous five-storey building at 80 Spadina was constructed in 1912 to serve multiple tenants\u2014much the same as it does today.\u00a0The Toronto branch of the Ottawa based company occupies the top two floors plus the rooftop. All-in, the space is over 40,000 square feet with around 200 employees and three or four dogs, depending on the day.<\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/p>\n

Work Life<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Though Shopify has three other offices (Ottawa, Montreal, Kitchener\/Waterloo), the primary operations from the Toronto office are product and marketing teams. Shopify staff enjoy making their own hours and working from team-based desk clumps which\u00a0border the building to take advantage of natural light.\u00a0For a change of scenery there are several break-out spaces and rolling pods which dot the office. The meeting rooms have been named and (branded) by the staff after comic book\u00a0lairs; villains upstairs and heroes downstairs.<\/p>\n

\"4\"<\/p>\n

\"5\"<\/p>\n

\"28<\/p>\n

\"6\"<\/p>\n

Culture<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Periodically,\u00a0Shopify staff are invited to work on any unique project they choose for two full\u00a0Hack Days<\/em>. The only rule is that\u00a0employees must \u2018ship\u2019 their projects no later than 4PM at the end of the second day. We visited the office on delivery day for a look at\u00a0the innovations. \u00a0Despite many understandably weary teams protecting their screens\u00a0until delivery,\u00a0we still managed to see some VR\u00a0tinkering as well as a facelift to the reception area. Office administrator\u00a0Nicholas Hape took it upon himself to transform the reception area into a real-life\u00a0store. The permanent installation is stocked with hip merchandise sold by existing Shopify merchants, many of whom\u00a0are also Shopify employees.<\/p>\n

\"29\"<\/p>\n

\"25\"<\/p>\n

\"26\"<\/p>\n

Design<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The office’s two floors were designed by MSDS Studios with merchandise\u00a0in mind: Visitors are met at reception with a storefront and the space continues\u00a0with retail-inspired motifs. Furthest from the entryway is the manufacturing-influenced\u00a0lower floor with walls clad in corrugated steel reminiscent of shipping containers.<\/p>\n

\"9<\/p>\n

\"24\"<\/p>\n

\"23\"<\/p>\n

Eat<\/b><\/h2>\n

Daily complimentary lunch is served here and although most\u00a0make their own hours, lunch usually brings the people together. \u00a0Two well stocked caf\u00e9s plus an epic snack wall fill in the gaps for the\u00a0night owls.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"10\"<\/p>\n

\"19\"<\/p>\n

\"14\"<\/p>\n

\"8\"<\/p>\n

Play<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Despite Shopify’s tremendous success, all the mainstays of a tech startup are\u00a0still\u00a0present. A bike locker is tucked away near the stairwell and a shower facility in next room. The game room is well stocked with\u00a0the usual suspects: foosball, pingpong, instruments and some impressive gaming gear. Oh and dogs… lots of dogs.<\/p>\n

\"7\"<\/p>\n

\"18\"<\/p>\n

\"17<\/p>\n

\"33edited\"<\/p>\n

\"32\"
…Petunia can’t even.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"12\"<\/p>\n

\"13\"<\/p>\n

After Work<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hard work deserves well-earned relaxation. The main-floor caf\u00e9 offers a rotating selection of popular local brews and the rooftop patio is the envy of the condo-encapsulated neighbours (and us).<\/p>\n

\"38\"<\/p>\n

\"30\"<\/p>\n

\"34\"<\/p>\n

\"36\"<\/p>\n

\"40<\/p>\n

Do you have an amazing office and would like to be featured here? Get in touch with us: contact@techvibes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entrepreneurial juggernaut\u2019s success story is top of mind as the elevator climbs to the top floor office in Toronto\u2019s trendy brick and beam Technology District. The doors opened to reveal a beautiful, bright, and aspirational space matched by the warm greeting at reception.\u00a0The inconspicuous five-storey building at 80 Spadina was constructed in 1912 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76166,"featured_media":102950,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[337,209,20,142,21],"magazine-region":[427],"magazine-series":[48],"magazine-topic":[],"class_list":["post-197","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-News","tag-culture","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-killer-spaces","tag-shopify","tag-toronto","magazine-region-toronto","magazine-series-killerspaces"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/76166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/102950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-region?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-series?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}