Osler, a prominent business law firm with an international footprint, has offices across Canada and in New York, and caters to a diverse clientele. Tapping into Vancouver’s coastal environment, and away from the old-school dark cherry tones of other law firms, was important to this client group. A palette of light and bright earth tones of green, brown, and gray, with the injection of warm wood tones was used throughout, and resulted in a refined, elevated, and modern space.

This project posed a specific challenge in that there were 2 very different client groups. It was headquarters in Toronto vs. the users in Vancouver. SSDG hosted multiple user engagement sessions and acted as liaison between Vancouver and Toronto in order to find a happy medium.

One of the main drivers for the Vancouver group was bringing the team together with dedicated space for gatherings, events, and chance encounters. We created a central hub for such events which was suitable for both large internal and external events. As an ISO compliant firm, security was non negotiable. To make this central hub work, SSDG collaborated with Osler’s internal consultant, an external security consultant, code consultant, city officials, and electrical engineers to ensure that all security standards were met, and complied with local codes.

Photographer: Arkavis Photography