This article was updated on October 23, 2013
Before Telus and its tree frog came Coca-Cola and its polar bears. The mobile phone company may have made the animal ad seem fresh but it’s not a surprise that the refreshment giant, regularly recognized as one of the world’s top brands, led the charge. Both companies, however, are among the first crop of major corporations to make the trail-blazing move to Toronto’s downtown core.
This past April, Coca-Cola Canada officially opened its new 100,000-square-foot headquarters to confetti and fanfare.
Caroline Hughes of figure3, the firm tasked with designing the space, says Coca-Cola didn’t need a ground floor lobby when it moved from Thorncliffe Park to the rapidly gentrifying King Street East strip but felt it was important to have one.
“We created (a lobby) in order to have a community presence – street level presence – so it would be possible for the company to bring neighbourhood groups into the facility,” says Hughes.
Contributing to the communities in which the company resides is one of several tenets Coca-Cola identified as part of its “live positively” program. The overarching commitment that weaves them together is sustainability.
The company had already made strides toward this goal on the distribution/production side of its operations but until striking a lease with First Gulf Corp., Hughes says, it had yet to apply principles of sustainability to the workplace.
A major factor in the decision to relocate was Coca-Cola Ltd.’s purchase of Coca-Cola Refreshments, the North American bottler of its products. Little had changed at the company’s Overlea Boulevard location since it set up shop there in the 1960s, says facility manager Mike Good, so the space would have required substantial investment to meet its new needs.
Figure3 used visioning exercises to better understand the company’s requirements. Employees from different levels of both of the newly merged companies participated; surveys allowed for broader input.
Coming from a building featuring private offices and segregated workstations, creating a collaborative and communal environment emerged as a key priority. It was determined that only employees at a director level or higher would have a private office, says Good.
The owner of the building, First Gulf, constructed three glass storeys atop the existing three brick storeys to accommodate Coca-Cola.
The centerpiece of the design is a three-storey atrium, which is filled with natural light that beams in through a grid of skylights. Meant to accommodate company-wide town hall meetings, the atrium features a massive screen equipped to deliver messages from the company’s global headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.
On the fourth floor, there is lounge-style seating to encourage casual interactions among employees. This seating may be moved into storage and switched out with folding chairs for company town hall meetings. Employees can also view these meetings from the fifth and sixth floors, which overlook the space.
In planning the different spaces, figure3 divided the floors into zones: private spaces, public spaces and portals (themed hallways), which serve as a physical cue as people move between the different types of spaces. They also tell Coca-Cola’s stories, including one that provides a history of the 125-year-old company in a 20-foot timeline.
It was never a question that branding would play a starring role in the design.
At the old facility, Coke paraphernalia had created a lot of clutter, especially on individual workstations, so it was important to properly display it in the company’s new home.
“We wanted the architecture (to) allow the artefacts to pop out,” says figure3’s Hughes.
That meant keeping the colour palette simple: mostly black and white, accented by the red of Coca-Cola’s unmistakable logo.
The lunchroom is minimalist, featuring long, communal wood tables lined with red, silver and black Emeco chairs made from Coca-Cola’s recycled aluminum cans. (Other creative re-use projects found in the building include lamp shades made from corrugated cardboard and a tapestry made from 16,000 Coke bottle caps by local artist Raymond Waters.) The space doubles as a company meeting room, equipped to broadcast presentations from computers and outfitted with wall speakers. Off to the side is a red and white kitchen equipped with fridges and microwaves.
From the lunchroom, employees can walk out onto a patio that has a fantastic view of the city. This side project had not originally been planned nor built into the budget but it was something employees wanted, says Coca-Cola’s Good.
Back inside, private offices line the perimeter of the building, allowing daylight in. The common work areas also enjoy floor-to-ceiling windows. When and where natural light is inadequate, the building uses motion sensor fixtures. This is but one feature that is expected to contribute to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification.
Hoteling stations allow employees that work off-site to have a space on days they do come to the office. The open, white- and wood-coloured workstations are from Steelcase’s newest line, c:scape. Filing cabinets situated between groupings of workstations are tucked under tabletops with stools. This not only saves space but allows for collaborative work.
Despite all the open space, the building is startlingly quiet. That, Good says, is thanks to the use of high-quality acoustic ceiling tiles and white noise.
For legal reasons, the two merged companies must maintain physical separation. This is why Coca-Cola Ltd. only has access to the fourth floor, while Coca-Cola Refreshments occupies the fifth and sixth floors and retains access to the fourth-floor common spaces.
Michelle Ervin is the editor of Canadian Facility Management & Design magazine.
