Great Offices: Google’s envy-inducing home base at Bay and Richmond
Great Offices: Google’s envy-inducing home base at Bay and Richmond
What: Google’s Canadian sales and marketing headquarters
Where: A 1955 modernist building at Bay and Richmond
How Big: 58,000 square feet over five floors for a staff of 150
When Google began planning its Toronto office, management asked their staff what their dream work space would look like. Which explains the mini-golf course on the 15th-floor terrace, the soundproofed room full of musical instruments and the retro arcade games scattered around the office (Pac-Man, Duck Hunt and others). Anyone who needs a quiet place to write or think can retire to the hidden lounge behind the library—pull the right leather-bound volume and the bookcase magically pivots open, Scooby-Doo style. But the staff favourites are the on-site gym with free towel service and regular visits from a massage therapist.
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- 203047
- Visitors sign in on a computer that spits out a name tag in seconds. The television screens flash current Google searches from around the world
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- The reception area also has an arcade-sized Google Maps console
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203049
- Each floor has a themed micro-kitchen: the Ice Shanty, for snow cones and Popsicles; the Candy Cabin, for junk food or a sugar fix; and the Healthy Hut, shown here, for smoothies
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203038
- Seating in one of the micro-kitchens
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203030
- For a campy Canadiana touch, there are meeting rooms named after local icons (Sam the Record Man, High Park, the AGO), plus this meeting room in a tent
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203028
- The office is flush with kitschy meeting rooms and common areas, like this faux-grass parkette, to encourage staff to get away from their desks.
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203040
- Push the correct book and the shelves in the library swing aside to reveal a secret lounge
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- (Image: Derek Shapton)
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- 203045
- A recent employee Ping-Pong tournament was live-streamed internally so players could size up their next opponent
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203046
- The in-house Tech Stop provides immediate help to anyone stymied by a computer glitch
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- Unusual design details, like the lamp cut-outs in the Tech Stop, are everywhere, the idea being that such oddities make people think differently
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203033
- Google likes to make sure its staff are never more than 150 metres from food. The main kitchen serves up a free hot breakfast and lunch every day
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- Most of the furniture in the common areas is movable, to optimize the space for sitting, talking or presenting. The glass garage door, pictured closed, can also open
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- 203039
- A custom art piece made of Rubik’s cubes by Toronto’s Cube Works Studio
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- Guests at the office’s opening party were handed felt-tip markers to colour in the Toronto mural, drawn by artists from the St. James Town project UforChange
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- The wall outside the soundproofed music studio is adorned with vintage record covers—exclusively by Canadian artists
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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- Another space for relaxation has built-in turntables
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Office Spaces: Google
- Great Office Spaces: Google
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. Anyone who needs a quiet place to write or think can retire to the hidden lounge behind the library—pull the right leather-bound volume and the bookcase magically pivots open, Scooby-Doo style. But the staff favourites are the on-site gym with free towel service and regular visits from a massage therapist.
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If I visited their super-cool office, I’d write “Kill Plus, save Reader” in graffitti on one of their super-cool walls.
I really really want to work for google!
All this and (soon to be) LEED Certified as well…enny inducing indeed!
All this and (soon to be) LEED Certified as well…envy-inducing indeed! What a fantastic project.
Wow these guys are always rocking the best of the best! How cool is that a play fort tent inside the office. Cool