Arc’teryx has long understood that the environments where people work shape the quality of what they make. When the opportunity arose to transform an underutilized training floor at their North Vancouver Design Centre into fully functioning office space, the brief was clear: light, bright, highly functional, and unmistakably Arc’teryx.
The second floor was reimagined as a complete workplace ecosystem — open workstations, enclosed meeting rooms, phone pods, collaborative gathering areas, and flexible rooms with moveable partitions that adapt to the evolving rhythms of a design team. Every zone is purposeful. Every transition is considered.
The material language draws directly from the brand’s DNA: white structural ceilings left exposed, polished concrete floors, light oak millwork, and matte black detailing. Cable trellis planters divide the open floor without closing it off, bringing in the biophilic quality that Arc’teryx’s outdoor heritage demands. Frosted glass partitions allow light to travel the full depth of the floor while providing the acoustic privacy a focused design studio requires.
The result is a workspace that performs at the same level as the products made within it — technical, refined, and built for people who take what they do seriously.
The existing training space was underdelivering — a large footprint with low daily utility. The challenge was to rethink it entirely as productive office space without losing the openness and light that makes the building special. Working within an occupied, active design centre meant construction sequencing and material choices had to be executed with minimal disruption to the teams already working below.
The transformed floor now operates as a fully integrated part of Arc'teryx's design campus. The flexible room configurations have proven particularly valuable, accommodating everything from focused individual work to cross-functional team sessions. The biophilic elements — cable planters, abundant greenery, views into the treeline — reinforce the connection to the natural world that sits at the core of the Arc'teryx brand.