The 10 coolest office spaces we visited in 2016

As you prepare to head back to work (or as you settle into your first day on the clock in 2017), take a look at the most unique, innovative and enviable office spaces we toured last year.

Deloitte

Toronto’s Deloitte staffers have plenty of nine-to-five options at this modern 19-floor space, which includes a spin studio, meditation lounge, and no designated desks. The space, which also features large-scale pieces from notable Canadian artists and a fully functional rooftop kitchen, opened in October.

 

Vice

The edgy media organization’s west-end offices are suitably hip, with brown leather sofas, walnut desks and plenty of whiskey available at the office bar. There’s also a 30-seat screening room and a luxe lounge called the Bear Room, named after a similar space at Vice’s Brooklyn HQ.

 

Shopify

How could you not love a workspace where orientation for new staffers includes meeting all the office dogs? Not only does the Toronto office of e-commerce giant Shopify have an all-pups-allowed policy, but there’s also free lunch, acoustic guitars on-hand for break time jamming, and plenty of craft beer on tap.

 

Facebook Canada

This Yonge and Eglinton office is where social-media magic gets made (Instagram Canada is there, too). Key features include catered meals, enough space to hosts events for up to 200, and—of course—a designated selfie station.

 

East Room

The city’s swankiest co-working space is decked out in antique furnishings, almost all of which is for sale. Creative thinkers, full-time freelancers and other desk-free types congregate here to work, chat and check out semi-regular concerts (like a recent performer from Toronto Life’s Stylebook cover boy Jazz Cartier).

 

LinkedIn

From standing desks and scooters to bean bag chairs and a fully-loaded video games room, this Silicon Valley-style startup is chock full of 21st-century workspace perks for its downtown staff of 128.

 

Twitter Canada

Behind the hashtags and retweets is a Toronto staff of 40 occupying just over half a floor (though it’s a large one at 16,000 square feet) at King and Strachan. Twitter’s local office is one of the company’s 34 worldwide, and offers staff plenty of space to work, snack and relax—not to mention arcade games and Stella Artois on tap.

 

McCann Canada

The creative agency behind the iconic “I am Canadian” campaign traded in its Queens Quay offices this year for a slick downtown space. McCann, which also invented Hockey Night in Canada, has rotating art, a wall of photos where staff hang pictures of their dogs, and display shelves featuring teeny tiny 3-D models of McCann employees.

 

Jackman Reinvents

This B+H Architects and Mazen Studios-designed space is open plan, allowing Jackman’s consultants and marketers to mingle with its graphic designers and other creative staffers. Highlights include catered lunches, whimsical wallpaper and occasional performances by the company’s in-house band, the Jackman 5.

 

MasterCard Canada

Until this year, MasterCard’s Toronto office had one communal space: a dark, windowless room staff called “The Pit.” The company’s new Toronto space, to which staff relocated earlier this year, is spacious, modern—and, most importantly, all windows.