In 2015 Sweeny&Co Architects partnered with Menkes Development to respond to a competition by Waterfront Toronto and The City of Toronto, for an office development that would support innovation and technology employment on the Waterfront. Our winning entry for the Waterfront Innovation Centre or ‘WIC’ exceeded the unique program requirements and creates publicly accessible amenities with incredible views to the City and Lake Ontario.

The buildings have distinct programmatic areas across both buildings; The ‘Hive’ is an adaptable, high performance secured workplace offering more than 40,892 sq m of leasable space with 3300 sq m floorplates offering unobstructed and contiguous planning flexibility. ‘The ‘Nexus’ serves as convergence space for both the public and the buildings’ tenants in a shared, accessible, and double-height amenity. Spread across both buildings and connected by a double-height bridge, the 725 sq.m Nexus houses two expansive collaboration lounges with flexible, multi-use seating and tables, rentable event space with high-tech conference and meeting rooms, 3 cafes area, and breakout areas. Overall, the building provides 7 outdoor terraces, two of which are accessible to the public with the remainder enjoyed by the building tenants. Achieving LEED v4.1 Platinum Core & Shell, the building was designed to optimize key sustainable strategies; raised floor ventilation that distributes cooled air in a high pressure, low energy underfloor plenum by which the tenant accesses both supply air and all cable management in a plug and play system. The individual in-floor air diffusers are easily reconfigurable and adjustable by the occupant to control their own thermal comfort. 90% of the typical office floorplate is within 40’ of the perimeter glazing. Rooftop photovoltaic arrays generate 5% of electricity demand. This building provides a destination at Waterfront and for companies looking to attract top talent.