Here at Westender, we’re closing out the year with a lot of amazing changes, so we want to share some of the fun with you this week. Normally, My Digs tours the amazing pads of our city’s most stylish peeps, featuring some of the coolest layouts, décor details and uses of space Vancouver has to offer.
This week, however, we’re inviting you into our digs, to check out where we’re at and what our style is all about. We somewhat recently moved our ‘home” from South Granville to the hip and artistically booming Yukon and 5th neighbourhood, and we’re seriously loving our new spot; with a massive open-concept layout and stellar wood-beam detailing throughout the building, the new office is definitely a step in the right style direction.
We’ve checked in with Westender’s ultra-chic new editor, Kelsey Klassen – whom you may also know as the woman behind the reins of VITA Daily and VITA magazine – and had the chance to scout out her office set-up.
Occupants: Kelsey Klassen, editor of Westender newspaper and VITA magazine; the rest of the Westender team; as well as the staff of Vancouver Courier, Business in Vancouver, REW.ca, VITA, The Growler, and other awesome Glacier Media publications.
What is it? A spacious, nicely renovated single-storey office with high wood-beam ceilings, clean finishings and a sweet kitchen.
Major selling feature: Its proximity to coffee shops, the seawall, and the hustle and bustle of Olympic Village, as well as lunch saviours like Whole Foods on Cambie and the retail therapy of Main Street. It’s also very central – on a good day, I can get to work from my house in Strathcona in about eight minutes, and to most interviews and events in about 10.
The first thing we changed: When you share a space like this, you can’t really go crazy with your décor. We have a heavily tagged vintage Westender box, though, that was rescued from the streets and has been with the paper for years, which currently sits next to my desk. I have a feeling it’s against the rules.
The feature we brag about: How new everything is. It’s really a privilege to work in a space designed for what we do.
That one conversation piece: The retro beer-vending machine in the kitchen. It’s a relic that our staff photographer brought in, which he keeps stocked with craft beer for those late nights at the office – when it works.
The décor: Cubicle chic. Underneath the usual piles of papers – yes, I tidied up for the photos – I also keep a few books for design inspiration, as well as some fun accessories from shops like The Cross, and an ever-changing array of plants and flowers to bring the outside in.
The story behind the collectibles: They’re just little things that help brighten up the space. You can’t see my embarrassing magnet collection in the photos, but it includes places that my closest colleagues have visited lately – we have a tradition of bringing each other magnets from vacation – and a hilarious baby photo of my husband.
Downsides: The neighbourhood has a lot of industrial buildings, so there’s not a lot of green space in the immediate vicinity. And the office is so long that I have to walk what feels like half a football field to get to the bathrooms! But when you sit at a desk all day, you certainly don’t mind an excuse to stretch your legs.
Neighbourhood haunts: Terra Breads with the VITA team, R&B Brewing with the Westender crew, and places like Big Rock and Bao Down for birthdays and special events. Fun fact: Big Rock Brewing has a very handy electric-car charger in the back, which keeps my interview mobile – AKA my Nissan Leaf – in juice.
Favourite office activity: This will sound super nerdy, but staff meetings. I have the pleasure of working with some amazingly creative people, and I always leave our planning sessions inspired. Also, one of the biggest pluses of sharing the space with other papers is that we mingle with other writers and editors, and can chit-chat about life and politics and our respective beats each day. Some interesting collaborations have grown out of that, including some fun podcasts on the company’s Press Play network.
