On Tuesday, work had scheduled an after-work happy hour, so I decided to take this opportunity to venture down into Philly for the day and check out the new digs at Independents Hall. Independents Hall, to describe it in my own words, is a group of independent workers who, rather than working alone individually, have decided to work together in the same space (“coworking”) to achieve that camaraderie that you usually get at a workplace with others but wouldn’t get by yourself at home. It’s a neat idea, and works for people like me who, although I work with other people, I don’t work in the same physical space with them.
After fighting with traffic for far too long (several accidents on the “expressway” led to a two-hour commute in - I don’t know how people do this on a regular basis) I did finally arrive downtown. I parked in a lot for the day near the space, which cost $17, but there was on-street parking to be found for people who wouldn’t be ticketed for their inspired inspection stickers. The walk from the lot to the Indy Hall space was short.
One remarkable thing about the space is that it’s literally right around the corner from the actual Independence Hall and Liberty Bell. If you’re going to woo clients who aren’t from the area, being within walking distance of these places could be a nice asset. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of all of the options nearby for food and such, which as odd a feature it may seem to tout, is a luxury we don’t have out in the ‘burbs. But what about the space itself?
The “space” is very nice. Very open, nice wood floors, plenty of room for 20 people to work comfortably, maybe more than that. The conference room is ample, with plenty of room for a projector and conference table (which is yet to be acquired). The second floor houses the bathroom and kitchenette, including a shower (?), and there is also room for a few more desks and a kind of break area.
Alex has a couple of amusing quirks when talking about the new space. First, he calls it the “space”, which while true, seems an odd thing since the word itself doesn’t really convey his thoughts when you hear him say it. I guess it’s not really an “office”, so that’s not the right word. It’s kind of “the place where the desks are”. Much like we always learned in CCD, the church is the building where the congregation goes, but still the word “church” is special and is not “the space where the congregation meets”. I think the space needs to have a name. Maybe call it “The Hall”?
The second quirk comes from his description of the place. He recorded a video tour while I was there on Tuesday, which might not be online yet (Viddler is currently down!), but I haven’t seen the whole video yet. During the tour, when he gets to the break area, he describes the area as “totally safe” even though you shouldn’t jump around on it because the “auxiliary mezzanine” was added on above the rafters separately from the actual floorplans. As you walk across the floor there you can feel what he’s talking about, but his simultaneous assurances that everything is ok but not to test it are quite amusing.
Being one of the first handful of people outside of the actual Indy Hall founders to see the place, I brought my drill to help assemble some desks. There were about 14 or so Ikea desks that they had in kits, and we assembled half of them when I arrived. After that, I took up a seat in one of the folding chairs and got to work.
There weren’t many people there, just six of us, but the atmosphere was comfortable, and I was able to get some good work done in spite of my unusual surroundings, notebook hindrance (I find it harder to work on the notebook than the desktop), and presence of other people. Actually, having the occasional interruption from work by a live human being was a nice change, and even toward the end of the day when I really needed to concentrate on debugging something, I just plugged in my Etymotic headphones and it all went away, no worries.
After the day was done, I met up with some of my actual co-workers at National Mechanics, a bar/restaurant that’s around the corner. We hung out there ourselves for a while, and some of the Indy Hall guys came over too. In all it was a very productive day.
I’m glad I signed up for membership with Indy Hall, and I expect that my once-a-month foray into the city will be well worth it.
