The Jessgo

Nestled in the historic, and heritage Hilroy Building, in Toronto’s Design District, The Jessgo Art Gallery and Studios, had two iterations of intent and design. The first an 8,000 sq ft space to be designed using shipping containers as offices for the partners that make up the Jessgo universe, would eventually become the head office and showroom for Canada Goose.

The second, and current iteration, was 1,800 sq of pure raw industrial space. With fabulous north facing windows (a bonus to any artist, or photographer looking to maximize natural light) we outfitted the space with both the functionality of an artist’s workspace in mind, and also a space befitting of a gallery and showroom.

The existing floors were grinded down and epoxy coated to provide both a shine (so that the space could be illuminated even without the lights on) and a durability for the foot traffic due to the many events that the space would house. Artist friendly track lighting, and industrial style ducting was added to compliment the industrial feel of the existing space.

To meet the artists needs, a bathroom, and generous, hidden, storage space (rear of the gallery) was introduced. Finally a 7” baseboard was added, painted white to match the painted bricks, and exposed wooden ceiling.