Yes, I need to put in a big vote for "open" here as well. Walls are barriers to culture. To the extent that you want coworking to engender common culture, you want it to be able to flow freely.
We have two large rooms, and two small offices that hang off the one largest room. Invariably people want to be in the large main room because that's where the energy is. The folks in the two offices are constantly poking their heads out to be a part of what's happening in the main area. The secondary room is more of an overflow room at this point and it only gets used occasionally or for meetings. If it was used every day all the time, it would invariably have a different cultural "feel" to it than the main room. IndyHall, in its version 1.0, had two floors and Alex has remarked that the main floor and the mezzanine folks had two different cultures; not vastly different but enough to notice. That all said, Beehive Baltimore's space is something we took over as-is. If we get the chance to design our own space, it'll be primarily open space with perhaps a couple of meeting areas and possibly some tiny spaces appropriate for phone calls. If you're doing nothing but private offices I think it devolves into being executive suites pretty quickly, and that's a different thang. Dave -- Dave Troy Organizer Beehive Baltimore On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 3:41 AM, jesse <je...@citizenspace.us> wrote: > Open. We've got 20 dedicated desks in a large open plan space. > Probably self-selecting, but the folks here seem happy with it. Easier > to start or join a conversation with neighbors, and lots of energy > seeing other people excited and working on their projects. > Occasionally we have bizarro moments where it seems like everyone is > on a phone call with a client, but usually it paces out fine. > > The fact you would also have dedicated private space for meetings and > private calls is valuable. > > Jesse > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Jesse Taggert > Citizen Space > San Francisco, CA > http://citizenspace.us > @citizenspace > > > On Feb 2, 1:43 pm, Mike Pihlman <m...@telbitconsulting.com> wrote: > > OK, we have a chance (as our 1 year anniversary approaches) to move to > > the office space next to ours. Ours has a nice open area maybe 12 x 12 > > (The Patio). The rest of the space has a hallway with offices 5 of them > > on either side, and storage. I took the doors down on the left side to > > encourage openness, but, use the right side offices (with doors) for > > cell phone use, private meetings, etc. See floorplan here: > http://www.tracyvirtualoffice.com/cool-links/floorplan/ > > > > The next door space has three offices (the same as the old space on the > > right) that can be used for meetings, cell phone etc, but the rest of > > the space is wide open. The space looks and feels huge even though it > > is "only" 200 sq ft larger. > > > > Our (mostly gut) feeling is that the open space would be better. But, I > > was wondering if you had advice or thoughts? > > > > Thanks, Mike > > > > -- > > Mike Pihlman > > TracyVirtualOffice > > "A Coworking Community" > > 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 > > Tracy, CA 95376 > > Mobile: 209-608-4340 > > Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com > > Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice > > Skype: tracyvirtualoffice1 > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > -- Dave Troy meet with me: http://bit.ly/davemtg blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
