MOVING INTO THE LIGHT

When designing its new office, Cassels wanted a brighter space for all of its employees

- Andrea Yu

For 35 years, Toronto-based law firm Cassels Brock & Blackwell was housed in a 10,000-square-metre office in Toronto’s financial district. Like many 1980s-era workplaces, it had long corridors, compact cubicles, status-affirming corner offices and a deficit of natural light—functional but not exactly a place where anyone would want to spend 40-plus hours a week. In 2019, the firm was growing its workforce and needed a bigger space, so its leaders decided to relocate to a 12,500-square-metre office in the Bay Adelaide Centre’s north tower, just across the street. The design and building process, which was helmed by architecture firm Gensler, started in early 2021 and took a year and a half. In April 2023, Cassels officially moved house.

“We wanted to create a space that would entice people to come back to the office,” says Kristin Taylor, managing partner, who was heavily involved in the design process. Back during Covid, after a virtual quarterly town hall, an employee who was working in the old office told Taylor that the space’s dark, closed-off layout—as well as the absence of colleagues and the general gloom of the pandemic— was seriously affecting his mood and morale. That conversation inspired the core of the new design, which would centre on the “right to light”—an approach that makes sure everyone has ample access to natural light, whether they’re a partner or a paralegal.