Firm： Lemay

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2018

SIZE： 25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

Crafting a workplace for the future

With its new head office hosting some 350 professionals, Lemay introduces an experimental laboratory for its myriad innovations in sustainability and workplace design.

It was already a socially and environmentally responsible gesture to plant itself at the heart of Montreal’s South-West borough, an up-and-coming neighbourhood also home to the firm’s own humble beginnings. But instead of designing a new building, Lemay chose to transform a neglected 1950s-era warehouse into offices for its growing multidisciplinary team. It seized the opportunity to design a unique work environment for testing out new concepts and approaches in support of the design excellence and sustainable development leadership Lemay offers its clients.

Even further, in line with its mission to create better living environments for communities and future generations, Lemay decided its new headquarters would target LEED Platinum and Fitwel certifications in addition to net-positive energy consumption and net zero carbon.

Existing and upcoming eco-features include the following:

- Roof-mounted solar panels and a heat recovery system inside the Phenix’s curtain walls;

- An indoor green wall to improve air quality and offer employees access to nature;

- Plants inside the open workshop to ensure privacy and absorb sound;

- Natural lighting and ventilation;

- An “eco-machine” to filter the building and site’s water, using a bio-retention basin and sophisticated planting strategies;

- Artificial light provided by low-energy LED lightbulbs; lighting fixtures activated by motion sensors;

- A host of policies emphasizing active living, waste reduction, the use of public transit and each employee’s responsibility for sustainable development.

The embodiment of Lemay’s brand, the Phenix at 3500 Saint-Jacques St. in Montreal is therefore a testing ground for establishing new best practices in architecture, landscape architecture, sustainable development, urban design, interior design and development strategies.