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Laurentian Bank, Project Overview

Just a few months ago, Laurentian Bank completed the move of its new head office to the e-commerce place at 1360 René-Lévesque Boulevard West. As a result, the financial institution becomes one of the major tenants of the LEED Silver certified building by moving 1,400 employees over 10 floors totaling 275,000 square feet.

Over the past year, the company made large changes, bringing together employees from 9 different locations under 1 roof. Laurentian Bank is also taking the opportunity to inaugurate a new branch on the ground floor of the building. Employees of the Laurentian Bank will now benefit from a privileged location and proximity to the Central Station and the surrounding subway stations.

The vacancy rate of certain spaces in the former premises is one of the factors behind this decision-making, but in addition to allowing the Laurentian Bank to realize substantial savings in rental costs, the consolidation of the workforce aims to optimize interdepartmental collaboration and foster cohesion in the corporate culture.

 

Groupe Focus worked closely with the Gensler team and the Teknion team to execute the requirements for the specification and the installation of the furniture. The challenge for Groupe Focus was also to operate the different phases of successive installations while respecting the schedule previously established in collaboration with the Laurentian Bank team and other mandated professionals. The project includes hundreds of closed offices and open-plan workstations, approximately 130 meeting rooms with various layouts, an optimized trading room, a resting area on each floor, training rooms and much more.

The work environment imagined by the Gensler team is very modern and supports the corporate image of Laurentian Bank. The managers’ offices are in the center of the floors, while the open work areas are located on the outskirts so that employees enjoy maximum natural light.

The closed offices are from the Casegood collection while the open space workstations are from the Leverage Collection by Teknion. On each floor benches  from the Hightower Monolite Collection add a casual look to the rest areas. The Cover chairs and the AC Lounge sofa from Studio TK furnish the lounge area dedicated to the history of the Laurentian Bank.

Focus Group’s team stood out through tight project management and daily rigorous supervision of furniture deliveries and installations. We are extremely proud to have delivered a project of this magnitude while respecting the deadlines established beforehand. We also assisted Gensler and Teknion in the development and specification of the new office furniture standards for the new branch located on the ground floor of the building.

Laurentian Bank has dedicated a space to the rich history of the institution. In the back, we can see the emblematic giant pint of milk Guaranteed Pure Milk erected in 1930 by the company of the same name and restored in 2009.

Groupe Focus would like to thank all the partners involved for their valuable collaboration and especially the team of Gensler and Laurentian Bank for their trust throughout the realization of this great project.

Photos : Adrien Williams

Construction : P&R Desjardins

Design : Gensler

Office furniture : Teknion & Groupe Focus