The multi-award-winning, 40,000-square-foot George Weston Limited project in midtown Toronto was the culmination of a design competition for a new reception lobby. The overall project for the $9 billion company eventually encompassed the lobby, employee café, boardrooms, meeting rooms, a three-storey internal staircase and a general work area. Thinking outside the box with the lobby, B/A proposed cutting through the slab between the eighth and ninth floors to create a two-storey reception hall. Two-storey, back-painted and back-lit glass paneling accents the space’s clean-lined, dramatic good looks. Large light wood panels scaled to the volume of the space tie the design together along with a custom reception desk and custom light fixtures designed by Bartlett. Teknion workstations feature muted grey tones with frosted glass and maple accents. A challenge was to design space suitable for the display of Weston’s museum-quality art collection that includes a series of original Christos. The main boardroom was built around the requirements of three-dimensional art pieces with custom ceiling lighting. A neutral palette in the general work area provides the perfect background for the display of other art, as did the simple, clean stairway design.