After landing a sublease of approximately 100,000 square feet in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood, the design team worked with Toast to enhance the existing space and redesign portions throughout to increase functionality for the needs of their growing workforce. Capitalizing on the assets and value of a recent build out for a previous tenant as well as reusing a significant amount of furniture from their previous space, the design team used that as a base to transform the office into Toast’s new headquarters. Sasaki delivered a highly stylized and functional office on an efficient budget that aligns to Toast’s values and culture and brings their brand to life. 

Inspired by the Toast brand and their hospitality focused clients, the design team crafted a series of individualized vignettes that bring Toast’s energy into 333 Summer Street. The tagline of “Toast at every meal” was the guiding concept that determined the look and feel of each area. Each of the seven floors highlights a different meal of the day and has its own curated palette of finishes that embody the layered and contextual nature of hospitality design. Intentionally crafted to feel like unique work cafés discovered across the floor, the design concept underscores Toast’s brand and caters to a sense of excitement and discovery throughout.

Community Spaces for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner 

The design creates unique destinations to promote movement, activity, and community across the seven floors. As the Sasaki team began to conceptualize each of the seven levels, the idea of each floor being designed around a different meal began to emerge. Levels 2, 3 and 4 are the three core workplace floors, dedicated primarily to desking and conference spaces. These floors naturally fit as the three core meals of the day, breakfast (level 4), lunch (level 3) and dinner (level 2).

The three floors below the entry are programmed with more social spaces for collaboration, team building and alternative workspaces. These floors conceptually center around more social meals: appetizer (the mezzanine, as a small bite of a floor), happy hour (ground level) and midnight snack (basement). Last but not least, in the center of the floors, level 1 fits as the dessert floor, noting that it is always best to start with dessert! 

Designing for Neurodiversity

Along with the design concept was a strong focus on neurodiversity which considered the following: stimulation, naturalness, flexibility, adjustability, opportunities for movement, varying levels of privacy and social interaction, simple wayfinding, and universal design. Each floor includes vignette areas that are distinctly more textured, patterned, and specialized in lighting. This creates interest, variety, and alternative options to the workstation areas, which are more muted in color, texture and tone for hyperfocus. Acoustics were studied to ensure that sound is controlled to mitigate distractions.

The design provides connections to nature with simple patterns and an overall sense of calm. High ceilings and tall windows allow abundant natural light, an exterior deck offers outdoor access, and greenery is used throughout. Everyone has a height adjustable desk and adjustable/movable chairs to encourage movement while working. Variety is supported in a balance of work environments to meet individual needs and preferences for desired level of privacy or interaction, like phone booths, small enclosed meeting rooms, semi-enclosed spaces, and open work stations. 

A simple approach to wayfinding is achieved with repetitive floor plans and intuitive layouts. Wayfinding graphics contrast with other visual or tactile cues and are often positioned so that the user does not need to make direct eye contact. The entire space is inclusive and inviting, with all-gendered restrooms and easy to navigate floors, allowing comfort and access to all users no matter the physical or cognitive challenges.

A “Toastified” Branded Environment

To make the space uniquely Toast and celebrate their brand, Sasaki’s environmental graphic design team worked closely with the interior designers to develop graphic interventions tailored to intended uses of different spaces. Client facing spaces include interactive product displays and branded gathering spaces, while employee centered spaces have subtly branded Toast graphics to make the spaces engaging but not distracting.

Toast has a dynamic brand that is food and customer-centric. Sasaki merged the design vision with branding to create something thematically vibrant. This collaboration can be seen in the iconography and imagery that was selected and crafted for each floor’s theme with brand applications ranging from bold to subtle. Primary gathering and circulation spaces are adorned with bigger and brighter colors to promote more dynamic activities, while working areas and meeting rooms use more tonal and subtle graphic application, to reflect the quieter programming of those spaces. This takes shape as a custom fabricated pegboard display wall, image collages, a custom Boston skyline graphic, and color wayfinding supergraphics. In meeting rooms, Toast icons are represented in glass privacy film as knocked-out icons, revealing the meeting space beyond. Each icon was specifically selected to reinforce the theme of each floor.

As an immediate welcome to Toast’s new space, the lobby features a product display system that is fully customizable, allowing Toast to tailor the experience for different guests and clients. The interactive pegboard wall was custom developed to fit within the main customer zone and showcases Toast’s values and innovations. All throughout, the Toast brand is put on display from the overall design concept down to the details.

Thoughtful and economical design solutions allowed the team to craft beautiful spaces within the project budget. The result is an interior environment that is flexible and functional for its end users, giving Toast’s teams choice and variety, enabling them to do their best work every day.