Includes state-of-the-art recording studios and coffee shops known to serve stars like Shawn Mendes
Earlier this year, Universal Music Canada moved into a sleek new office in Liberty Village. The workplace includes three state-of-the-art recording studios, a versatile performance venue, and his 45,000-square-foot space that includes a coffee shop where global superstars such as J. Cole, Shawn Mendes, and Dave Grohl have been known to work. We have office space. A caffeine jolt before heading to a meeting or rehearsal. “We have little each day field of dreams UMC CEO Jeffrey Remedios said: ‘I don’t know who I’ll run into’
In the 2010s, UMC had offices in a large warehouse and 401 in Victoria Park. I spend half my day stuck in traffic. So in 2016, UMC began planning his campus downtown in a trendy neighborhood where musicians can find inspiration. “We wanted to create a place where artists and their partners could connect and collaborate,” he says.
Over the next four years, with the help of local architect SuperKul, UMC did just that, creating a clean, bright workspace at 80 Atlantic Avenue. With lots of gray carpet and timber walls giving the space an organic feel, the office is ready for his early 2020. Then Covid hit and the UMC team put away their laptops and worked from home, so the new space remained essentially pristine. Now the staff is back on his schedule for his three-day hybrid.
Here is the inside of the space.
At the ground floor main entrance, UMC leases space to Arvo, a coffee shop that sells beer and wine. “They are very nerdy about their wine and coffee,” he says, Mr. Remedios. “They take it very seriously. Like how UMC thinks about records.”
This versatile event and performance space is also located on the ground floor. Accommodates up to 100 people, fully equipped with soundproofing and PA. In September 2021, Sean and Her Mendes used this room to rehearse for the Much Music Video Awards. In August, Geddy Lee and Dave Grohl were rehearsing for a Taylor Hawkins tribute show here. Over the bar, cheap seats from the old Massey Hall have been repurposed to act as his sound buffers. Fans of Tragically Hip will notice the neon lyrics in the song “Ahead by a Century.” UMC got Gord his Downey’s actual notebook and rendered the autograph in his handwriting.
Upstairs is a state-of-the-art private recording space called 80A Studio. A separate entrance allows the artist access without distracting (or distracting) her UMC employees elsewhere in the building. Above the front desk is a mirrored glass installation by Canadian multimedia his artist Trevor Wheatley and his partner Cosmo Dean. Depicting the tossing of a coin, it reflects the unpredictability of the creative process.
Welcome to Studio 1. When J. Cole was playing in Scarborough his shooting his Stars in the spring of 2022, he used this space to make music. It features a huge solid state logic soundboard and an Atmos surround sound speaker system.
The walls are lined with photos of UMC’s current talent, including Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
While there are meeting rooms for these UMC employees, there are also separate access coworking spaces for independent contractors such as artist management teams and label partners. There are many desks and private rooms.
UMC commissioned artist Catherine Walker to create the gray carpet walls that can be seen throughout the office. They provide a bit of sound dampening and make the space feel organic, soft and natural instead of boring and stuffy.
Massey’s boardroom, where large and important meetings take place, looks like something out of a movie, with agents and other heavyweights banging on the table and defending clients. Hall, Maple Leaf Gardens, Commodore Ballroom).
UMC employee workspaces are: About 160 people work in this office on his three-day hybrid work schedule (everyone arrives on Wednesday). Desks are set up in “neighborhoods” by department, creating a mix of separation and collaboration.