General Question

Carly's avatar

What kind of "shared" office space am I specifically looking for (don't know what it's called)

Asked by Carly (4555points) January 10th, 2014

I live in St. Louis. I’m a freelance editor for fiction, and I also work remotely for a publishing house (for non-fiction). Because I work at home I get pretty lonely in an isolated environment. I’ve tried working at my local library, but it can be a pretty sad place; there are mostly homeless people trying to find shelter, or middle schoolers being noisy.

What I’m really looking for is a place where I can rent out a desk in a shared office area, but not one that is too corporate. I’m a young adult, and I love being around hip places. I dress pretty casual, and I love being around other individuals my age who might be in a similar position as me – or groups of people who are working on small start-ups.

I’m originally from the Bay Area, so I know there are places that “exist” where individuals or small groups can share an open space and set up cubical areas where needed – I just don’t know exactly what to search for when it comes to other places outside of start-up land…

Would any of you guys be able to help me?

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11 Answers

glacial's avatar

Oooh – how about this? If they don’t have space available, maybe they can make some recommendations. It might be a good place to start.

CWOTUS's avatar

There are a lot of “business incubators” in different formats, and they have office setups for one-man-band type operations up to several people (in the same organization) sharing a single office. I don’t know of any that have the kind of open and “shared space” arrangement that you describe, because of the obvious problems of security among relative strangers.

Judi's avatar

I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for but it’s pretty cool.

snowberry's avatar

This looks pretty generic, but it could get the job done, depending on the price. http://www.intelligentoffice.com/texas/austin/shared-office-space

Ooooh, I like this one!
http://www.thinktankpittsburgh.com/

Judi's avatar

@snowberry she’s in St Louis.

Judi's avatar

@glacial , that’s amazing!

glacial's avatar

@Judi I know, I find myself wishing I lived in St. Louis!

funkdaddy's avatar

It’s called coworking.

It looks like St. Louis has a number of places,

Nebula has desks for really reasonable rates. I’m not familiar with St. Louis, but I work out of Capital Factory here in Austin after several years of mixing home with different solutions for an office.

I love working like this, it’s the right mix of social contact with almost everyone having the understanding that you’re there to get work done.

I checked out several before that and most give you a free day of work if you want to take a look around and are month to month with no lease or deposits required. Beyond that they vary quite a bit in the style and vibe of the space.

Can’t recommend it enough for a great alternative to the house and trying to find space in coffee shops.

gorillapaws's avatar

I know of at least one multi-million dollar software company that is based out of a coffee shop. They buy plenty of coffee and tip the staff well, so they get to work in a pleasant environment for the cost of drinks.

Carly's avatar

@glacial and @funkdaddy those are great! Thank you so much, everyone. :)

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