Lightspeed shares design award with ACDF Architecture for Montreal office re-build

Montreal eCommerce juggernaut Lightspeed has shared honours for a major design award with ACDF Architecture, the firm that designed Lightspeed’s new headquarters at the Gare Viger building in Montreal’s downtown Ville-Marie borough.

The honour was handed out by Interior Design magazine as part of its first annual MakeItWork awards, which saw ACDF and Lightspeed taking the categories of Best Breakout Space, Best Reception Desk and Best Budget Office, beating out more than 50 competing design firms.

The Gare Viger is one of Montreal’s old magnificent structures, a château-style train station and hotel that had sat empty and forgotten on a periphery between Old Montreal and the city’s Chinatown, nearby City Hall.

The Gare Viger building overlooks a civic square that is undergoing its own transition from a mid-’60s brutalist sculpture park that has provided shelter for many of the city’s homeless to a transformation over the next couple years as the city plans its 375th anniversary.

Lightspeed’s renewal of the Gare Viger space was singled out by Interior Design for “preservation of the found, raw elements of the space, superimposing a layer of select elements — slick glass walls, colourful pavilions, vibrant furniture and graphic art — that pop against the roughness of the station and reflect Lightspeed’s brand.”

The honourific also mentioned the sense of humour and nostalgia that played into the design elements, with retro cabanas, a “pool”, and a swank inset bar-style/lounge area sharing space with a clean, slick professional environment that nonetheless encourages a tight-knit, nimble start-up aesthetic.

Lightspeed moved into their new headquarters late last year after outgrowing two buildings in the Mile End district.

Get a load of the new space in the images below.