{"id":225203,"date":"2024-04-29T09:22:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T13:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_project&p=225203"},"modified":"2024-04-29T09:22:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T13:22:48","slug":"connectivity-meets-nature-in-linkedin-toronto-hq","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/connectivity-meets-nature-in-linkedin-toronto-hq\/","title":{"rendered":"Savor Connectivity and Nature at LinkedIn\u2019s Toronto HQ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"a
Acrylicize\u2019s treelike sculptural installation Hinterland spans all three levels and creates a canopy above the reception area. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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April 29, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Peter Webster<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Eric Laignel<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Savor Connectivity and Nature at LinkedIn\u2019s Toronto HQ<\/h1>\n\n\n

With 36 offices around the globe, LinkedIn is almost as ubiquitous a physical presence as it is a digital one. And like the business-focused social media platform\u2019s 1 billion-plus members, each of those offices has an individual identity, a personal brand that closely reflects the culture of the city and country it\u2019s located in. The company\u2019s new three-floor, 100,000-square-foot Toronto headquarters is an ebullient example of this individualistic paradigm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was our first project with LinkedIn,\u201d recalls Meg Navin, commercial practice executive director at CannonDesign, which, in July 2019, won the competition to relocate the Toronto office to a ground-up LEED Platinum\u2013certified building by Architects-Alliance and B+H Architects. Cannon\u2014which is number 12 among the Interior Design<\/em> top 100 Giants<\/a> and also 4th and 12th on the Healthcare and Sustainability Giants<\/a> lists, respectively\u2014provided interior design and work strategy services, \u201cand a little bit of change management,\u201d adds Navin, who led the project. \u201cIt\u2019s a sales office, so our task was making sure LinkedIn\u2019s team had the right mix of spaces\u2014for meetings, individual heads-down work, and shared resources for everyone\u2014as a total kit of parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Graphic Design Creates a Distinct Identity for LinkedIn Toronto<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"LinkedIn
Transit map\u2013inspired wayfinding on a wall of slats\u2014all made of locally sourced, reclaimed Douglas fir\u2014defines the middle-level elevator lobby of the three-floor, 100,000-square-foot Toronto headquarters of global business-networking platform LinkedIn by CannonDesign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In February 2020, the scope of work expanded when Cannon won the environmental graphics portion of the job, which Dylan Coonrad, in the recently minted position of creative director, headed. Almost immediately, COVID shut everything down. \u201cWe had to pause,\u201d Navin continues, \u201cand start having conversations about the future of work, security, safety, and other important factors that began coming to light.\u201d The client decided to phase construction floor by floor instead of doing it all at once, which allowed Cannon to develop the program over time\u2014test different layouts, furniture solutions, square footages per employee, and so on\u2014and apply the best results when building out the next level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, with all phases complete, the fine-tuned headquarters puts a premium on \u201ccollaboration spaces, team rooms, places where people can come together,\u201d Navin says, noting that there are relatively few singular workstations, \u201cevidence that we were able to adjust a bit with the future of work changing so rapidly in front of us and say, \u2018Maybe one-on-one is not the right solution for you.\u2019\u201d So, desk-sharing neighborhoods are balanced with enclosed rooms for quiet meetings with clients, augmented by smaller pods and phone booths for individual use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"phone
Privacy film featuring updated versions of onomatopoeia graphics from superhero comics clads phone-booth doors in an office area. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Office Amenities Include a Recording Studio and Fitness Space<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Amenity spaces, which include a lounge, coffee bar, game area, and recording studio\u2014a lot of the employees have instrumental skills and like to jam now and then\u2014are generous and exuberantly characterful. The Grove, a large cafeteria that can be combined with an adjacent training room for all-hands meetings, is matched with an almost equally expansive kitchen, since food quality was an important consideration. \u201cWe worked closely with LinkedIn\u2019s catering service to make sure all the culinary equipment was top-notch,\u201d reports Coonrad, whose team helped name the eatery and many of the other non-work facilities while creating the headquarters\u2019 extraordinary graphics environment in which most walls are lavishly embellished. \u201cWe produced 104 individual graphics over the phased construction period,\u201d he confirms. \u201cNormally, that would be a red flag\u2014why would anyone want so many?\u2014but, for the client, it\u2019s an outward gesture toward the employees, a sign of how much the company wants them to thrive and feel included in the workplace.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The messaging begins in the elevator lobbies, where floor numbers are rendered as convoluted networks of reclaimed-wood strips that resemble transit maps. Dotted across the framework are several mottos, like \u201cAspire to Excellence\u201d or \u201cInvest in Transformation,\u201d which reinforce company core values. One end of each lobby faces its own commissioned mural featuring an abstracted depiction of a specific Canadian sight\u2014the Aurora Borealis, Niagara Falls, Dinosaur National Park\u2014by Toronto illustrator Jeannie Phan. \u201cLinkedIn puts effort into engaging local artists and giving them credit whenever possible,\u201d Coonrad notes. The murals are prelude to a plethora of clever Canada-specific iconography, such as the game area\u2019s striking wall installation made from the parts of a deconstructed Muskoka chair\u2014an arguably more- comfortable version of America\u2019s classic Adirondack seat\u2014though as the designer is quick to point out, such cliched Canuck symbols as moose or plaid flannel are avoided. (The latter appears once, in highly abstracted form, on a huge sign reading \u201cThe World Needs More Canada.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Game
Osko + Deichmann\u2019s Superkink armchairs and Gabriel Teixid\u00f3\u2019s barstools join ping-pong and pool tables in the game area, where the parts of a deconstructed Muskoka chair form a wall installation. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the intervention that perhaps best embodies the company\u2019s desired sense of place for its regional headquarters is Hinterland, a three-story-high treelike sculpture that rises up through the open stairwell, a direct response to Toronto\u2019s reputation as a city of enviably verdant parks. Made from tubes in a number of materials\u2014wood, metal, concrete, and acrylic\u2014the airy, twisting form not only evokes a tree\u2019s roots, trunk, branches, and overarching canopy but also suggest the connections, pathways, and conduits between business professionals that the networking platform is designed to facilitate. At LinkedIn headquarters, the messages are always mixed, in the very finest sense of the word. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check Out the LinkedIn Toronto Headquarters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"a
Acrylicize\u2019s treelike sculptural installation Hinterland spans all three levels and creates a canopy above the reception area. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"main
In the main elevator lobby on 28, \u201cInvest in Transformation\u201d is one of several mottos reinforcing LinkedIn core values that appear throughout the office. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"tech
Jehs + Laub\u2019s Jalis stools pull up to the tech bar fronted with hand-painted ceramic tile, while Gensler\u2019s Free Address sofa and LucidiPevere\u2019s Rho ottomans provide adjacent seating. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"lounge
The lounge off the tech bar on the same floor is furnished with Ellaby high-back lounge chairs by Eoos and Odo Fioravanti\u2019s Babila XL sled-base chairs overhung by Andrew Neyer\u2019s Crane wall fixtures. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"in-house
Music production\u2013related graphics cover the wall outside the in-house recording studio. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"linkedin
Wayfinding signage is one of the few elements consistent across all LinkedIn spaces but the adjacent magnetized wall game, based on a children\u2019s puzzle, is custom. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"40-foot-tall
Rising through the open stairwell, the 40-foot-tall sculpture is made from tubes of Douglas fir, brass, blackened steel, concrete, and frosted acrylic. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"view
Niagara Falls<\/em>, a mural by local artist Jeannie Phan, can be seen from the 27th-floor lobby, where flooring is concrete as it is mostly throughout. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"fitness
The fitness center locker room includes ceramic tile\u2013clad floor and walls, Anderssen & Voll\u2019s oval mirror, and chunky teak stools. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"cafeteria
Reclaimed Douglas fir slats reappear in the Grove cafeteria, where the floor is inlaid with a large, central rectangle of terrazzo. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"corridor
Aurora Borealis<\/em>, another Phan mural, faces the cafeteria\u2019s name rendered as a giant cross-stitch wall embroidery using parachute cable. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Plaid flannel, an overworked Canadian symbol, makes a sole, discreet appearance in a corridor. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
PROJECT TEAM\u00a0<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n

CANNONDESIGN:<\/strong> MICHAEL BONOMO; NICOLE ANDREU; PETER MCCARTHY; MICHELLE LYNCH; PAUL NG; CHRIS LAMBERT; CARMEN RUIZ CRUZ; KATERINA HONSBERGER; ENGE SUN; HENDY BLOCH; BARRETT NEWELL; OLIVIA GEBBEN; STEFFANY BRADY; CHELSEA DOCHERTY; ABBEY FURLOW; MIRANDA HALL; SHARON MATHEW; JACKIE TOBIN; JESS WIER; NICOLE SOWINSKI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARCHITECTS-ALLIANCE; B+H ARCHITECTS:<\/strong> BUILDING ARCHITECTS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JEANNIE PHAN:<\/strong> CUSTOM MURALS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SKETCH WORKING ARTS:<\/strong> ART CONSULTANT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NGASSOCIATES:<\/strong> FOOD-SERVICE CONSULTANT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THORNTON TOMASETTI:<\/strong> ACOUSTICS CONSULTANT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SMITH + ANDERSEN:<\/strong> MEP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENTUITIVE:<\/strong> STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DPI CONSTRUCTION:<\/strong> GENERAL CONTRACTOR. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRODUCT SOURCES From Front<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n

VISO:<\/strong> CUSTOM SCONCES (ELEVATOR LOBBIES).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KEILHAUER:<\/strong> HIGH-BACK CHAIRS (LOUNGE). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STUFF BY ANDREW NEYER:<\/strong> PENDANT FIXTURES. WCI: DISC-BASE TABLES (LOUNGE, GAME AREA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HIGHTOWER:<\/strong> COFFEE TABLE (LOUNGE), BARSTOOLS (GAME AREA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHILEWICH:<\/strong> RUGS (LOUNGE, TECH BAR). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BL\u00c5 STATION:<\/strong> CHAIRS (LOUNGE, GAME AREA), UPHOLSTERED CHAIRS, BARSTOOLS (CAFETERIA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PEDRALI:<\/strong> SLED-BASE CHAIRS (LOUNGE), WOOD CHAIRS (CAFETERIA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRAMERY:<\/strong> PHONE BOOTHS (OFFICE AREA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SHAW CONTRACT:<\/strong> CARPET TILE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARKTURA:<\/strong> CEILING BAFFLES (RECEPTION). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

XAL:<\/strong> TRACK LIGHTING. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVENT MATERIALS:<\/strong> DESK LAMINATE (RECEPTION), BANQUETTE LAMINATE (CAF\u00c9 CORRIDOR). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARPER:<\/strong> ROUND TABLES (GAME AREA, TECH BAR). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STYLEX:<\/strong> SOFA (TECH BAR). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COR SITZM\u00d6BEL:<\/strong> BARSTOOLS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAESARSTONE:<\/strong> COUNTERTOPS (TECH BAR, LOCKER ROOM). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAVIS FURNITURE:<\/strong> OTTOMANS (TECH BAR), WHITE CHAIRS (CAFETERIA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIRECLAY TILE:<\/strong> BAR-FRONT TILE (TECH BAR), COLUMN TILE (CAFETERIA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STONE SOURCE:<\/strong> WALL TILE, FLOOR TILE (LOCKER ROOM). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARTICLE:<\/strong> STOOLS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUUTO:<\/strong> OVAL MIRROR. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOTO:<\/strong> SINK FITTINGS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FORMICA:<\/strong> LOCKER LAMINATE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEMO TILE & STONE:<\/strong> FLOOR TILE (CAFETERIA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VIBIA:<\/strong> PENDANT FIXTURES. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEED DESIGN:<\/strong> TRACK PENDANT FIXTURES. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALLERMUIR:<\/strong> TABLES. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRODUCT SOURCES THROUGHOUT <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DADO LIGHTING; FOCAL POINT; LITELINE:<\/strong> LIGHTING.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMERICAN CLAY:<\/strong> WALL PLASTER. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CENTURY ARCHITEXTURE:<\/strong> BRICK WALL TILE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARMSTRONG:<\/strong> ACOUSTIC CEILING PANELS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTERNATIONAL CELLULOSE CORPORATION:<\/strong> ACOUSTIC CEILING FINISH. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WAUSAU TILE:<\/strong> TERRAZZO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.;<\/strong> SCUFFMASTER: PAINT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n