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Stay updated with our latest Ottawa architecture insights and projects in our News section. Engaging blogs await!

News From Award Winning Architects - Linebox Studio

In someone else's words.

News

In a time when we’ve all done so much to regain what sense of community we can, it feels somehow incongruous to be publicly trumpeting an award we’ve won. Let alone two. We’re incredibly honoured. And immensely proud. Don’t get us wrong.

The Platinum Award and the Grand Prix du Design we’ve been awarded are humbling. Since 2007, Grand Prix du Design 

recognizes designers and architects having distinguished themselves through exemplary practice. Thirty countries are represented. A thousand projects are considered. 

Linebox was honoured to receive the Platinum award for the larger than 54,000 sq. ft. office category. We also won the Grand Prix du Design award for being one of the 50 best Quebec projects in all categories.

It’s a massive recognition. We’d be remiss if we didn’t pass the recognition on to those who equally deserve it. Without the incomparable clients who collaborated with us, we couldn’t have captured these wins. Like a lot of the greats, GSoft is a leading edge company for a set of reasons well beyond the incredible tech solutions they produce. They took the opportunity to redefine how work gets done before the onset of the pandemic. The new space we built with them is one that energizes the staff that inhabit it. We’re unbelievably grateful to have been able to work towards realizing their ideal headquarters in a partnership.

Obviously, without the Linebox staff whose diligence, creativity, experience and vision exceeded the goals of the GSoft team, the awards would have been equally impossible. Those relationships, that skill and the mandates that underlie the experience is what will remain. That’s the stuff we take forward.

Creating avenues to link various factions within a company will promote interaction and engender a sense of shared purpose. GSoft staff are connected in their new headquarters by an unusual strand of ramps, banks and paths. The culture at the tech firm is inextricably tied to skateboarding.

Skateboarding has a history of divisiveness, not of its own creation, but of being kept on the outside by defensive architecture and officials. But the sport carries a message larger than itself. In Philadelphia, there was a park (JFK Plaza) overrun by drugs and gangs. Then skateboarders discovered the marble ledges and smooth pavement. When the skater kids felt safe enough to use the space, workers looking down from nearby buildings started feeling safe too. Pretty soon, almost everyone was going again. But eventually, after the more affluent visitors arrived, the city council enacted a park ban on skateboarding. The founder of the park, a past city-planner, protested the ruling and skateboarded through the park. (He was 92 – and happened to be Kevin Bacon’s dad.) But the skateboarders lost. And today, the revamped park, criticized as characterless and unoriginal, has been called a “featureless plateau”.

What we learn from this isn’t truly about boarding at all. It’s the value of bringing different people together in a venue. It’s the mix of varied approaches to seeing the world that enables creativity and produces something bigger than the sum of its parts. It’s true of the parks. It’s true of office spaces, too. Built to host their staff. In commercial architecture, creating an environment that supports people’s ability to work together is the foundation of good design. There are decisions that can be made to draw together elements of organizations that might otherwise be divergent. We made everything rideable. It links the enormous square footage in a way that’s dynamic and fun. But it also makes impromptu connections with workers from varying departments more frequent.

No GSoft employee feels they belong to a single delineated space within the walls of the headquarters. They don’t have to be tethered to any particular workspace on any given day. This can only serve to remind the staff that they are sharing the catch. Organizations are finding that creating office space that allows more interaction between departments is a winning proposition. The same companies are discovering that designs that permit a variety of work requirements, from highly focused to paired and larger meetings, are an essential cog in the road to productivity. The GSoft offices host nooks for working individually, amongst larger spaces that allow greater engagement. Staff can choose to work at a desk, cocooned in a cozy alcove, mingle in an onsite café or brainstorm in a meeting space. They are not shackled to one zone.

What we’ve learned from the pandemic is that the ability to control the conditions of our work are more important to us than we realized, and more flexible than many had deemed possible.

We’ve also learned that despite our attempts at modesty, it’s pretty great to be able to shout about a big win like this. Maybe there’s a time to let humble slide. We’re indebted to our clients and Linebox’s incredible Montreal office. We’re also so thankful to the Grand Prix du Design for creating and administering the awards. But mostly for choosing us. Twice. We’re going to pop a cork or two, and maybe work on our 360 varial kickflip.

A Big Win. Skateboard gentrification. And Another Big Win.

The Gsoft office designed by Linebox Studio has been selected as an A+ Awards Finalist in the Architecture +Workspace category! It is recognized as one of the world's best projects this year. From over 5,000 entries across 100+ countries.

Linebox Shortlisted Among The World's Top 5 In Office Design

Linebox Shortlisted Among The World's Top 5 Office Design

Linebox has been shortlisted again by Le Grand Prix du Design 2021, for 

Once again, we are very proud and grateful to everyone involved in this amazing project !

Gsoft Wins Le Grand Prix du Design 2021

A second award by Le Grand Prix du Design 2021 for Linebox !

Kirchoffer is our most award winning residential project. At Linebox we are doing great design when it's about your work space and even better when it's about your home

Kirchoffer Wins Le Grand Prix du Design 2021

Nestled between the Lachine Canal and the St. Lawrence River, Montréal’s urban Pointe-Sainte-Charles neighborhood reflects the city’s industrial past while housing modern businesses, such as GSoft, a locally founded software development company now situated in the historic Nordélec building. 

Linebox Transforms Historic Montréal Building into a Modern Office

Linebox Transforms Historic Montréal Building Into A Modern Office

With winter approaching, many businesses are changing their service models

“It’s pretty motivating when you meet these chef-owners who put their heart and soul into food, and who are as passionate and dedicated to their craft as I am to mine,” said Reeves, who’s of the opinion that many restaurants in our region have risen to the top of their game. “I think the Ottawa food scene, for the past three or four years, has been the best in Canada.”

Ottawa's top restauranteurs charge ahead with expansion plans

Ottawa's Top Restauranteurs charge ahead withe expansion plans

Deputy Mayor Laura Dudas recognized Ottawa’s best in urban design at the 2019 

. The awards, handed out every two years, celebrate projects built in Ottawa that achieve excellence in urban design. In this eighth instalment of the program, the awards honoured exceptional projects completed between September 1, 2017 and September 1, 2019.

A jury of three independent experts assessed submissions in six categories and bestowed eight Awards of Excellence. In addition, the jury selected projects in each category to receive an Award of Merit. This year, 18 projects were recognized across the six different categories.

Award of Merit – Public Places & Civic Spaces

City recognizes Ottawa’s best in urban design

At the time that this office was built, Shopify had this to say about it:

“Unlike some other companies that are setting up in Toronto we are not a satellite office,” said Thibodeau. 

“We are not an office that just does a little piece like marketing or operations, we are an office where we’re really building cross-functional teams that can take an idea to designing it, researching it, launching it, and continuing to iterate on it. That investment in building fully scaled product teams here is a really big focus for us.”