Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP)

Discipline : Interior Design

Categories : Office / Office > 54,000 sq.ft. (> 5,000 sq. m.) : Gold certification

Categories : Special Awards / Signage & Branding : Gold certification

After more than 30 years in its uptown location, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) moved into its new ten-floor, 342,000 sq ft workplace in the heart of Toronto’s Financial District. The new workplace is a representation of OTPP’s commitment to delivering outstanding service and retirement security for its members, and reflects a sense of trust, confidence, and humility, while prioritizing wellness, sustainability, and flexibility for its employees.

Divided into three distinct ecosystems, OTPP’s workplace is guided by three key design inspirations—Strength, Nurture, and Energy. While the workplace is a combination of all three, each ecosystem adopts a principal design foundation to best suit the workstyles needs of its people. The client-facing floors embody the Strength of stone and metal; the working floors Nurture wellness via warm woods and plants; and the talent and amenity floors, the Canopy, exude Energy by taking colour and vibrancy to new levels.

OTPP’s Stack Strategy—a three ecosystem and amenity floor design—provides variety throughout the space and encourages movement and exploration via interconnected staircases and offerings. Amenities include The Canopy Barista Bar, Chef’s Harvest (Grab & Go), Level-Up Games Room, Ecosystem Cafés and Tea Points, Business Lounge, and Renew Health Suite, Multi-Faith, and Parents Room. To promote in-office attendance and collaboration, the workplace caters to a variety of work modes, offering open collaboration hubs, quiet zones, and flexible meeting rooms and spaces.

Located in the middle of the stack, the Renew Health Suite—coined by Gensler—offers employees a peaceful area to disconnect and recharge. Inspired by natural elements, the Renew logo, graphics, and signage harken back to the organization’s commitment to wellbeing. Accessible to all employees, Renew features gender-neutral and barrier-free restrooms, multi-faith spaces, and the same braille signage that is included throughout the space

To reflect OTPP’s commitment to educating Canadians about Reconciliation, the Downie Wenjack Legacy Space is deliberately located next to The Canopy—a high-traffic barista bar—and features its own Indigenous artist commissioned mural. All the artwork and installations found throughout the workplace are crafted by Canadian and Indigenous artists.

By deconstructing OTPP’s apple logo, Gensler translated the organization’s brand and core values into its own unique graphic language with a series of value-assigned icons in both the physical workplace and digital platforms. Noticeable in both the micro and the macro, OTPP’s value icons come together to illustrate the workplace’s “Tree of Unity” graphic, which connects and grows up the ten-floor stack from seed, to sprout, to canopy.

The project in images