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A new kind of firm flexibility How co-working just might be the future of firms and how the industry is tailoring experiences for the profession.
MORE THAN EVER, architects are branching out of their large firms to explore what may be the greener pastures of entrepreneurship. The economy has forced many young associates to hustle to reach the wealth of their more established counterparts, learning to market themselves and their abilities in their own smaller side ventures. The industry is vast, and architecture professionals are finding themselves at a turning point in the age of the millennial. Co-working spaces are all the rage and are proving to be a useful tool to those architects exploring entrepreneurship. They are popping up in storefronts and in office buildings looking to rebrand themselves. Companies like WeWork and Industrious are exploding all over Atlanta, and smaller boutique style versions like Regus and SharedSpace are making their homes in Savannah and Augusta. The mad rush of these group working environments has created the space for niche membership co-working communities designed to serve a particular type of clientele. Constellations, a new and relatively small coworking space on historic Auburn Avenue, in Atlanta boasts a mission to provide a “civic and socially-based shared workspace where stars come together and shine.” This is a sexy way of saying they have dedicated their private offices and studies to those companies and organizations make a positive difference. Matt Finn, AIA, the interior architect, has even set up shop for his own small firm in a Constellations “field office.” San Francisco and St. Louis’s Covo environments opened to much fanfare for providing co-working opportunities dedicated to those in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) profession. It gets better... Members of Covo in these locations enjoy CAD stations, a materials
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CITIZEN ARCHITECT
