http://pixelcarve.com

“My purpose in life is to change the face of the Internet. Make it easier to use, more interactive and dramatically more beautiful.”
Ryan Priest – CCO, Pixelcarve Inc.

Our passion is to create engaging and complete interactive experiences that intimately connect people with brands in unique and memorable ways. Our commitment is to grow your business through innovation, relevance and beauty, because we believe these are the cornerstones of unforgettable experiences that attract and retain clients.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ve no doubt seen offices designed on the cheap as well as ones that cost a pretty penny. Because of this wide range in price, I find myself wondering: At what point does the cost of a project outweigh the benefit of the proposed results?

Broad Reasons for Great Office Design

Without getting into the specifics of each, there are fairly clear reasons that a well-designed workplace can be an important asset for any company.

• Improve efficiency of employees
• Improve workplace atmosphere
• Improve employee wellbeing
• Improved means of enticing prospective talent
• Improved means of impressing potential customers

The Costs of Great Office Design

Let’s take a peek at some reasons you might find a well-designed office to be expensive:

• Construction/Designer Costs
• Furniture
• Larger Space
• Time Intensive

Analyzing the Costs and Benefits Together

Without putting dollar signs on each of your employees, it is important to think through your reasons for improving your space and whether or not those are worthwhile investments. That’s not to say that you either make the improvements or don’t make them, but rather a call to make intelligent decisions about what is most important for your organization.

• Google obviously feels comfortable designing posh, fun, and photogenic workspaces in an effort to entice employees, but is it really necessary for the average employer to spend incredible sums of money on an office as a means of recruiting? Probably not. Instead, focus on building a great company that your employees love working for.
• That said, many companies do see the importance of using their space as an advertisement for their company, their creativity, and their product. But please know that just spending money on an office to make it seem like your are an amazingly creative company is not enough to actually make you an amazingly creative company.
• If you’re really keen on spending $2000 on each employee’s workstation, but can achieve the same efficiency or wellbeing gains for $1500, why not go for the less expensive option?
• Construction costs are the bulk of any major office redesign, while furniture is the least expensive. Facebook’s Palo Alto office was completed with a low cost/sqft because they were able to chose a space without needing major construction work.
• Sometimes, beyond money, redesigning an office can be a real pain and used up more time than you would actually save by having a redesign.

All of this said, envying over photos of offices is one thing, but when it comes to actually designing an office, please make sure that the goal of your design isn’t to win the prettiest office award, but rather to win the best functioning space to work in.

Original Post by Office Snapshots – By: Stephen Searer

I recently went on tour with a tenant looking for approximately 2,000 sf of office space in the financial core.  They were hoping to find something fully furnished that required less than a 1 or 2 year lease commitment.  Finding landlord’s that will lease space for less than 3 years has become difficult it what has become a landlord’s market in Toronto. After 30 or so phone calls we did, however, come up with a few sublease and fully furnished alternatives.  I took my new camera on tour to test out the fish eye  lens and I’m happy with the results.

If you are looking for office space or commercial real estate in Toronto give my team a call at 416-643-3713 or E-mail us!!

What do you think of the video tour – comments welcome!!

Colliers has just launched a new integrated map search for properties. This new functionality will makes it easier for users to search and find the right property options for them.

What do you think? Check out the link here.

Outside the box thinking for commercial real estate. Maybe that should be my new tag line…

Check out this video our team put together for the new Mozilla Offices! I love showing off the projects and clients I have worked with. This one in particular was a real group effort, a kick ass deal with an amazing client and amazing space.

What do you think – we would love your input!

EBS Construction – Michael Dragneai
InDeVision – Mette Keating
Colarossi – Mario Colarossi
Colliers International – Chris Fyvie

Neo Solar from Ben Lean on Vimeo.

What are your reasons for renting a serviced office? You might not be certain correct now, but a few of the subsequent to reasons might allure to you. These are 10 of the tip reasons many other companies have taken the step to lease an office entirely serviced.

1. The business is flourishing fast, and it no longer creates clarity to keep working out of a home or other trickery existing for free. Unfortunately, it is moreover as well shortly to execute to a long tenure let lease for an office space. The adjustable renting conditions of a serviced office is the best fit.

2. The business is relocating from one city, state or nation to another. Temporary office space is indispensable whilst explorations in to the new area are achieved and the preference to pierce in to that area is completely set in stone. It creates no clarity to pointer a long lease when the expect town of operations could potentially change as skeleton are ironed out.

3. The business is small, but needs access to costly apparatus to make sure every day operations run smoother. Many serviced offices enable businesses to share equipment, so any business does not have to buy it on their own.

4. The business is a new start-up, and space is indispensable but presumably not permanently. It is always dangerous starting up something brand new with paltry funding, so it usually creates clarity to keep the long tenure commitments as low as possible.

5. The business is established, tiny to intermediate in size, and not to the indicate of employing organizational and technical encouragement to the budget. Since a serviced office gives the business a few use of organizational support, the business can function uniformly without putting out an additional amount on employing that additional personnel.

6. The business is sepulchral suddenly fast, and the office space already rented will not grip all of the employees being hired. In this case, the firm will typically put the spill in to a serviced office space, just until they can obtain out of their stream undertaking and find a incomparable space to henceforth lease or purchase.

7. The business has already leased long tenure with a new office space, or has potentially purchased new space, but it is not ready at the time the lease on the aged space is up. In demand to keep business working and employees protected whilst the new space is put together, a proxy let is necessary.

8. The business is tiny or intermediate in size, but there is a need for additional office space for a since project. This might be something long tenure or partial term, but the space will not always be needed, so it creates no clarity to buy or lease long term.

9. The business is considerable and is exploring the choice of gap up a new section or department. Until the thought is entirely invested and ready to go completely, they might lease a serviced office space to residence that probable section or department. Eventually, that space will be scrapped with the division, or fused in to the company.

10. The business is just starting up and the owners are not entirely certain how to go about working an office space. They can use a serviced office as a learning experience.

All of these situations are temporary, but they moreover have an evident need that the serviced office space can fill. Do you pick out with any of these reasons? If so, it might be your time to take up residence in serviced space.

I’m excited to try this out! Wonder who my first client will be to sign on their smartphone!
https://signnow.com

If you need to sign a legal document while away from your home or office you can use free webapp SignNow to upload a pdf of the document, sign the document electronically, and email it to wherever it needs to go, all without having to pay or register with SignNow. Lifehacker

Original Article

The triangular five-storey red-brick building, with a trompe l’oeil mural on the side, went on the market Tuesday, with formal bids due on Oct. 27 to Brookfield Financial Real Estate Group, which is overseeing the sale.

“It’s the ideal time,” said Eve Lewis, president and CEO of Woodcliffe Landmark Properties, noting that for the first time in almost a century, no ongoing leases mean a single owner or tenant could occupy the entire office space, close to 20,000 square feet.

Only the bar Flatiron & Firkin remains with a lease until the end of 2015.

Sitting at an unusual corner where Front, Wellington and Church Sts. meet, the building has often been photographed with Toronto’s bank towers in the background.

Lewis recently took over the helm of Woodcliffe after her husband Paul Oberman, a heritage developer, died in a small plane crash in March in Maine. He was flying with another man in a four-seater plane when they ran into an ice storm.

Lewis is also president of MarketVision, a condo marketing firm.

Oberman specialized in developing heritage properties including renovating the old North Toronto train station, which now houses the Summerhill LCBO. He painstakingly worked on the Flatiron building, also known as the Gooderham building, which dates back to 1892.

“I think it has always had an incredible appeal because of its iconic nature, because of the history of the building, because of the uniqueness of it,” Lewis said. “The market is very good for real estate in Toronto, period. But for commercial, it’s really exceptional.”

But Lewis isn’t saying what the property is worth, arguing that traditional formulas calculating square footage don’t necessarily apply, given the uniqueness of the building, especially now that it’s been renovated.

“To tell you the truth, I guess we’ll find out on the 27th what its value is,” she said, adding it’s always gone for a premium. She said commercial lease rates are comparable to the “triple A” rates of the bank towers.

“I think it’s because people can create an identity in that building that you can’t if you’re just on one of the floors of one of the bank towers,” she said, adding companies want something that’s different.

According to property records, the building sold in 1999 for $2.2 million and again in 2005, when Woodcliffe purchased it for $10.1 million.

Built for George Gooderham, then president of the Bank of Toronto and owner of Gooderham and Worts distillery, it even included an underground tunnel to the bank.

It also houses a manually operated Otis elevator that is still staffed to this day, to move passengers up and down the floors.

The original staircase wraps around the elevator, with large windows offering unique views. Many heritage buildings in Toronto were knocked down in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, but though the Flatiron fell into disrepair over the years, it was also preserved and renovated, most recently by Oberman.

“Paul always wanted to preserve historic buildings. He found a way of making those buildings in itself profitable instead of ripping them down,” she said, citing an ongoing project on Market St., where four buildings are being saved, instead of a new condo building going up.

In August, architect Michael Taylor argued for Market St., on the west side of the St. Lawrence Market, to be renamed Oberman Way. An online petition was set up.

Lewis has taken the Woodcliffe job in part to continue Oberman’s legacy with the help of their six children, who range in age from 20 to 26. They are committed to finding beautiful buildings to restore.

“Life is busy. It’s challenging, but it’s also distracting, and that’s probably good,” she said. “Life is different, very different without Paul.”

Putting the Flatiron up for sale was a tough.

“Of course, it’s a difficult decision to make,” she said. “But I think it’s the right one.”

Video is finally cheap enough to produce to go mainstream Internet. I’ve always thought video, not pictures, best show off a vacancy or clients office space. That got me to thinking, why not use video to help a client leverage their brand by showing off their office space and corporate culture at the same time. One of my clients thought it was a great idea too.

This video was produced by myself (@ChrisFyvie), Colliers Canada and Crucial Films for TrendHunter.com. Great companies, need great spaces.

Below is what I consider a relatively easy, cool and engaging way to deliver your brand identity to thousands of potential clients and staff.

Would you like to be featured on OfficeSearchToronto.com and ColliersCanada.com? Would you like a video like this produced featuring your companies culture and corporate brand? Do you have the coolest office space in Toronto and want to show it off!? Reach out and let’s discuss next steps.

Chris@officesearchtoronto.com
416-643-3713

Colliers Canada Thoughts:
Say goodbye to the corner office. Employers are shaking up office traditions, putting employees first as they consider where they’ll move next. Welcome your new neighbour – your boss, who is giving up their office, opting for collaboration over closed doors. More business leaders are considering the implications of where they’ll move next, understanding its impact on company culture and brand image.

Great companies need great spaces and tech brands aren’t the only companies wanting open-plan work environments. Stuffy workplaces are a thing of the past and companies are seeing the value in choosing office space that reflects their brand personality. Whether it’s a slide, a beer fridge, an abundance of white boards for brainstorming or foosball tables, brands are creating a second home for their staff, who often spend more time there than anywhere else.

Check out Trendhunter, a Toronto-based company and client of Colliers International and Toronto broker Chris Fyvie’s featuring founder and Chief Trend Hunter Jeremy Gutsche.

The Sayl Chair is Herman Miller’s minimalist masterpiece.

The Green Battle
The Taisun Tower
vs
The NEW World Trade Centre

Bonus – did you know that Google uses more power than Salt Lake City?