OFFICE
The O4A Team
Alex
Interests:
Lunch spot by the office:
Dessert choice:
Drink choice:
Architect/Designer:
Book/Movie:
Birthday:
O4A Skills:
Deacon
Interests: Music, Cycling, Live shows, Drag artists, Festivals, Costumes, Sewing. Nails and hair
Lunch spot by the office: Lotus Seed Vegan (sadly just closed)
Dessert choice: Anything vegan made with chocolate, earl grey, oreos or cardamom
Drink choice: Moscow Mule
Architect/Designer: Moshe Safdie
Book/Movie: The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive)
Birthday: March 20th
O4A Skills: Accessibility, Revit, Planning, Drawing conventions, Office management, Scheduling, Monograph
Jasmin
Interests: Editing + Journaling, Volleyball, Snowboarding, Travel, Food, Cats
Lunch spot by the office: Meat + Bread (when I want to splurge) but other than that, Tim Hortons for cheap and fast
Dessert choice: Coffee Bun (specifically green tea bun with tiramisu cream)
Drink choice: Matcha Iced Latte!
Architect/Designer: Toyo Ito
Book/Movie: Hunger Games
Birthday: December 21
O4A Skills: Design, Graphics, 3D Modeling, Researching + Precedents, adaptable, proactive
Marta
Interests: Chess
Lunch spot by the office: Caffè Cittadella
Dessert choice: Cheese cake
Drink choice: Cafe con leche
Architect/Designer: Alberto Campo Baeza/ George Lois
Book/Movie: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Haddon / Call Me by Your Name
Birthday: April 20th
O4A Skills: Urban Design, Concept Development, Visual Communication (and the Creative Suite), Structures, Passive Design, MEP
Natalie
Interests: Art, Music, History, Travel, Life stories (i.e. people) the Clean Energy Transition
Lunch spot by the office: If buying, the International Sandwich Co., otherwise the parking lot
Dessert choice: Cheesecake or Lemon tart
Drink choice: Tea (various types)
Architect/Designer: Lina Bo Bardi
Book/Movie: The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
Birthday: February 28
O4A Skills: Specifications, Contract admin documentation, Cost estimates and Contractor costing, Door hardware, Lighting, Special detailing
Colin
Interests: Bicycle Travel / Mechanics, Photography, Wood Shop, Camping
Lunch spot by the office: Mr. Japanese Curry
Dessert choice: Babka
Drink choice: Rum + Soda, Coconut water
Architect/Designer: Aalto, Zumthor, Erickson
Book/Movie: Just Ride by Grant Peterson
Birthday: June 26th
O4A Skills: Architectural Technology, Detailing, BIM
Elizabeth
Interests: Crafting, Crochet, Making something with my hands, Junk journals
Lunch spot by the office: Granville Island Market
Dessert choice: Tiramisu, Apple Pie, New York Cheesecake, Canoli
Drink choice: Orange Soda, Prosecco, Water
Architect/Designer: Iris Apfel, MIke M
Book/Movie: The 100 Year Old Man who..... by Jonas Jonasson / Shirley Valentine
Birthday: January 14
O4A Skills: Anything to do with accounting-payroll-billing, Listening to all the playlist
Jorge
Interests: Racquet sports (mainly tennis and ping pong), languages, traveling, and food
Dessert choice: apple crumble pie with vanilla ice cream and banana bread
Drink choice: non alcoholic: anything with elderflower, hibiscus water; alcoholic: islay whisky or mezcal
Architect/Designer: Luis Barragan, Jan Gehl, Tadao Ando
Book/Movie: The Book Thief or The giver
Birthday: 4th of December
O4A Skills: Narrative Design, Marketing/Communication Strategies, Concept Development, Public Space Design, Talk/discuss about life
Josh
Interests: Music, Psychology, Art, Story telling, Wilderness, Aesthetics, Wisdom traditions, Human flourishing
Lunch spot by the office: Deja Brew
Dessert choice: Milkshakes
Drink choice: Milkshakes
Architect/Designer: Fujimori, Rossi, Zumthor
Book/Movie: The Overstory
Birthday: April 10th
O4A Skills: Document clarity / Formatting, InDesign, Rhino, Grasshopper, Detailing, Writing, Research, Theory, Precedents Research, Cross-Disciplinary Precedents Research
Luis
Interests: Philosophy, Tennis, History
Lunch spot by the office: Mon Pitou
Dessert choice: Citrus-flavoured desserts
Drink choice: Vermut / Matcha latte
Architect/Designer: Anne Lacaton/Charlotte Perriand
Book/Movie: Ficciones by L. Borges
Birthday: October 5
O4A Skills: Housing, Urban Design, Composition and layouts, Precedents and theory
Mike
Interests: Gardening, Constantly thinking about learning how to play the guitar
Lunch spot by the office: Dalina, La Taqueria
Dessert choice: Peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. Yum
Drink choice: Manhattan
Architect/Designer: Rick Joy, Tom Kundig, Enric Miralles
Book/Movie: Of Human Bondage by Maughan
Birthday: September 6th
O4A Skills: Being a generalist, Practice advice, Construction Materials and Methods
Valia
Interests: Sketching, Watercolors, Mixology, Movies
Lunch spot by the office: Winter - Deja Brew. Summer - Caffè Cittadella. For special occasions - Mon Pitou Bistro & Bakery
Dessert choice: Tarta de queso
Drink choice: Espresso Martini
Architect/Designer: Rafael Moneo, TEd’A Arquitectes
Book/Movie: Blindness by Saramago / The Lobster
Birthday: July 20
O4A Skills: Public space, Concept and representation, Precedents, Illustrator and Photoshop, Website management
Key Information
Office Etiquette
Attend meetings on time. For internal meetings, if you are running late or unable to attend, please let the team know in advance.
Participate in team meetings, we want to hear from everyone.
Respect, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to us. Just treat others kindly.
Our unofficial office dress code has been termed “design professional.” This dress code is meant to accommodate your creative expression as a design professional. Keep in mind that you contribute to the culture and reputation of O4A through the way you present yourself in interactions with clients, consultants, suppliers, colleagues, and other office visitors. When attending external meetings, a higher level of professional dress is often warranted. PPE is required for construction site visits. Hard hats and vests are provided by the office, but you must bring your own steel-toed boots. Feel free to keep your boots at the office for your convenience.
Professional Development
Depending on the course, professional development opportunities that benefit the firm may be funded by O4A, within reason, throughout the year and on a phased basis.
25% after 1 year,
50% after 2 year,
75% after 3 years and
100% after 4 years.
Prior approval of coursework, schedule, and cost is required.
O4A does not cover fees for ExAC or NCARB examinations, or for AIBC mandatory coursework.
O4A will pay annual AIBC and IDIBC dues for employees registered with those organizations.
Health and Safety
The office undergoes regular cleaning, and it is the responsibility of all employees to keep the space neat and orderly.
It is O4A policy that if an employee feels sick or unwell — no matter how minor — they must stay home. We encourage everyone to use their allocated flex time as needed.
Hardware
Our firm works with laptops and Revit. We will supply the necessary equipment and software. This setup is not intended for taking work home but to support a flexible, mobile office environment. The ability to work from home is built into the structure and culture of O4A.
All project and O4A-related work must occur on O4A’s cloud drives, accessible through the office network. All files must, at minimum, be saved daily to the O4A cloud servers.
Limited personal use of office laptops is permitted. However, if an employee feels their personal information is too sensitive, or prefers not to have it potentially accessible to O4A management or IT staff during regular maintenance, they are advised not to use the office laptop for personal purposes.
Policies
O4A offers extended health benefits to employees after a three-month initiation period.
Annual reviews are scheduled with each employee, along with informal check-ins throughout the year.
O4A may grant employees a bonus at the end of each year, depending on firm and/or individual performance.
Hours
Work week consists of 37.5 hours. Standard 7.5 hour work day.
Holidays: Paid Statutory holidays.
Flex Time: A total of 52.5 hours per year is available for your use — for appointments, sick days, holidays, or personal time as you decide. Flex time cannot be carried over to the following year and resets at the start of each new year.
Vacation: Vacation hours are accumulated each pay period, as outlined in your letter of employment. Everyone is encouraged to use their vacation time each year; however, accrued amounts may carry over into the following year.
Banked time: Any overtime worked during the week will be added to your banked time and can be used in the same way as vacation time.
O4A Culture
Mondays!
These meetings provide updates on projects, office news, and team happenings.
Check out the agenda here.
Each week also includes a Monday Feautre, where a project or topic is shared with the team. It’s an opportunity to receive feedback or answer any questions, or simply share an interest.
Sign up here if you ever want to share something with the team!
And lastly it’s a chance to say Hello to the team!
Annual Duck Awards
Let’s have a laugh at our missteps!
At the end of each year, the O4A team gets together to celebrate milestones and accomplishments , and to laugh at our yearly blunders. We take this as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and enjoy the unforgettable moments that make our work memorable.
Keep track of any blunders throughout the year, and don’t forget to nominate yourself or a teammate at year-end!
Music Hour
We take turns creating a music playlist to share with the team. This happens on Thursdays and is a fun way to get to know each other better.
Sign up here to share your tunes.
Celebrations
Birthdays, milestones, new member, etc.
We enjoy taking the time to celebrate each other. This can take the form of an office lunch, dessert, or drinks.
Digital Collective Sketchbook
In this virtual space (Teams Group), we aim to capture the essence of our creative ideas while maintaining team connectivity amidst the multitude of concurrent design processes that occur at our offices in Vancouver, Windsor and Europe each day.
📷 Capture + Share: Whether it's a quick doodle, a napkin sketch, an intricate technical drawing analysing a detail, a watercolour of a precedent or a digital rendering, we encourage you to snap photos or screenshots.
🤝 Exchange Ideas: Our Collective Sketchbook encourages collaboration. By sharing our visual representations, we're fostering an environment where an exchange of ideas can flourish. Whether you're seeking feedback from the team, sparking discussions, or simply sharing your creative process, this our dedicated joint space to do it.
🔗 Develop Visual Communication Skills: As designers and architects, sketching is at the core of how we design, capture and communicate ideas. By actively participating in our Collective Sketchbook, we'll individually and collectively enhance our ability and confidence to convey complex ideas and concepts visually – an invaluable skill for our profession.
Please don't feel the need to share only polished or curated physical or digital works. Works-in-progress are almost always more saturated with ideas. Even the seemingly unskillful and messy combinations of jagged lines on trace paper turn into beautiful built work. We appreciate each individual style of representation and encourage you to embrace it. Here are a couple examples of Architects' Sketchbooks:
Now, we invite you to join us in making this chat a vibrant hub of inspiration, expression, creativity and collaboration!
The O4A Flexibility
We take pride in our office flexibility and commitment to work-life balance.
What does this mean? We understand you have a life outside the office. Some days you might arrive late — just let the team know. You might go to the gym during lunch — just make sure to freshen up and attend necessary meetings. You might want to take a long weekend — just check in with the team to ensure no deadlines are affected.
We also encourage a balance of being in the studio when possible, as this helps maintain a vibrant work environment for everyone.
The point is, we are flexible and do our best to accommodate team members’ routines, but always communicate with the team if your plans will impact the office’s day-to-day operations.
O4A Development
Our team strives to continuously improve ourselves and the office. One way we do this is through our weekly Project X meetings, where the team gathers to discuss and present topics that benefit both the office and the team.
We’ve outlined a set of goals and objectives to provide clear direction, align efforts, and serve as benchmarks for evaluating progress. Using the SMART method, we set measurable and actionable targets to foster accountability, motivate each other, and ensure our initiatives are purposeful. These goals guide us toward achieving our mission and vision.
Goals:
Foster a shared sense of purpose
Achieve consistency in Branding + Identity
Enhance Innovation
Foster a collaborative work environment
Enhance personal and professional growth
Be an advocate for the user
Sign up here under the categories you are interested in participating.
O4A Reflections
This space offers a glimpse into the conversations that shape our work at O4A.
Here, we share topics that spark dialogue within our team, from reflections on design elements and processes to explorations of materials, methods, and lived experiences. These are the themes that challenge us, inspire us, and deepen our understanding of the spaces we create.
Sign up here to share your reflection.