Workspace of the Month: Inside SSENSE’s State-Of-The-Art Montreal HQ
Montreal-based retailer SSENSE has a world following not only for its curated number of streetwear and luxurious trend but in addition for its distinct perspective—cool, assured and leading edge.
It’s an unmistakable vibe that’s constant in any respect contact factors: on its clutter-free web site and app, at its David Chipperfield-designed flagship retailer in Old Montreal and in its unassuming company headquarters within the Garment District. “Our office is very understated, which is a lot of what we’re about,” says chief folks officer Julie Forman.
An early adopter of a less-is-more aesthetic, SSENSE usual its open-concept area in a brutalist fashion. It was designed by native agency Atelier Barda, which created customized fixtures like concrete Chabanel chairs that sit amid dozens of tropical crops in black resin planters.
You gained’t discover any blue-chip art work on the white partitions or any nook places of work or different standing signalling; members of the C-suite share the identical area as each different employees member, and the flashiest factor about it’s its unobstructed view of the town, stretching from Olympic Stadium to St. Joseph’s Oratory.
In the twenty years since CEO and co-founder Rami Atallah created the e-commerce platform as a part of his graduate thesis in laptop engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, SSENSE has develop into a world-class retail chief, attaining a $5 billion valuation in 2021.
Its trend choices—which concentrate on luxurious homes like Balenciaga, Gucci and Saint Laurent and rising manufacturers like Jacquemus and Chopova Lowena—have been rounded out by further classes, together with pet merchandise, housewares, personal-care gadgets, tech and kidswear, over the previous 4 years.
Since shifting to its present tackle from a earlier area a couple of blocks away in 2013, the corporate has expanded throughout three storeys of the constructing, taking over a complete of 16,000 sq. metres.
The a number of teams that work there vary from authorized, finance, HR, merchandising, advertising and marketing and customer-experience personnel to a tech staff of 300 dev-ops and knowledge engineers, quality-assurance testers, user-interface designers and product consultants.
During the pandemic, renovation plans had been reconfigured to accommodate a hybrid work mannequin, which was formally put in place final yr. Most of the corporate’s 1,800 staff—who’re primarily based in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Dallas and London—work remotely, however these primarily based domestically can select when to make use of the workplace.
“It’s really about letting employees decide how to spend their time and when they need to collaborate in person with colleagues,” says Forman, who joined SSENSE final yr after working at organizational-consulting agency Korn Ferry.
The firm’s actual property staff created open areas with versatile seating configurations, like communal tables, cell desks and window counters with stools, in addition to areas devoted to conferences, together with an auditorium that seats as much as 500, and a quiet space for deep work.
There are additionally a whopping 39 on-site pictures studios, with much more positioned on the firm’s achievement centre 10 kilometers away. In these full of life areas, a cacophony of music and upbeat chatter fills the air as photographers seize as many as 1,500 brand-new merchandise per day for the web site.
In quick, it’s a trend lover’s paradise. “It’s probably the largest closet in Montreal,” says Forman.
