Polar Securities’ Toronto Offices
Toronto-based Securities firm, Polar Securities, worked with MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects in 2011 to renovate their 12,000 sqft office space.
“This office renovation involves tenant fit-up to the 19th floor of a downtown Toronto high-rise, home to the new corporate headquarters of Polar Securities, a successful Bay Street Hedge Fund and Investment Firm. The project focuses on strengthening corporate identity, and creating the most desirable and functional work space to attract and retain the industry’s top talent.
The design challenge centred on two main client objectives: to embody and amplify the company’s corporate identity, and to display the client’s large collection of Canadian Modern Art. The design solution addresses these two unique requirements by way of distinct program zoning (Meet, Lounge, Work, and Gallery areas), which converse with one another through a meditation on material and surface.
Polar’s identity is figuratively incorporated as arctic imagery in the design: a fractured and minimal arctic landscape inspires the physical expression of the office, resulting in a white palette of sliced and folded planes reminiscent of breaking ice.
In contrast to the abstracted, Arctic-cool wall and ceiling planes, the Gallery space is defined by warmth and texture. Baked white Oak clads the building core; weathered, warm and worn, it identifies the Gallery space and defines public circulation throughout the office.”
Design: MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects
Photography: Alex Lee
