Coworking in West Philly: Introducing The Fire Works
Philadelphia is a great city for coworking. In no particular order, we have Benjamin’s Desk, CultureWorks, Impact Hub, SeedPhilly, Venturef0rth, Quorum and of course, the grandparent of them all, Indy Hall. (Let me know if I missed any!)
Personally, the only one of these that I’ve sampled is Indy Hall, of which I am a member. I love it there. I love the JFDI culture and the enthusiastic, community-oriented members. Indy Hall really is a community that cares for itself, not just an office.
However, if you’re in West Philly, you may hesitate to commute three to five miles into a different part of the city every day. You may rightly recognize that West Philly is already all about community. Why don’t we have a an awesome coworking community and workspace right here?
Well! Wish no more! Because now we do. It’s called The Fire Works.
Photograph by Lisa Yoder
The Fire Works is located on the the third floor of the iconic building at 50th and Baltimore. Yes, the building with Dock Street Brewery on the first floor. Yes, the space that used to house Community Acupuncture. If you’ve been in the space, you’ll know how beautiful it is. But the beautiful space isn’t the real story here. The real story is one of community members, makers, organizers, web developers, etc all coming together to dream up something new that will not only benefit us, but (we hope) the entire West Philly community.
Almost exactly a year ago, I quit a job that had me commuting to Manhattan every day and opted for a job with a relaxed company that lets me work from wherever. I joined Indy Hall and started bicycling out there every day. Then I heard about a small group of people renting space at The Cedar Works, splitting the rent and coworking together.
It turns out, our little group wasn’t the only one interested in coworking out of The Cedar Works. West Philly seems to be full of people clamoring for this sort of thing! The owners of The Cedar Works had envisioned the space being used mostly by artists as studio space, and were surprised at the number of inquiries they got from people seeking fast internet and good coworkers instead.
When one of the owners of The Cedar Works decided to make a dedicated coworking space with flexible membership plans, our little coworking group could hardly contain our excitement. We’ve been honored to work with him to cast vision and shape this new, dynamic community of coworkers. In our first couple of weeks, we’ve already seen the space become a sort of “circle of circles”: prospective new members show up for a tour and realize they already know various other members from disparate West Philly communities. The Fire Works seems on track to becoming another neighborhood nucleus, like Mariposa or Studio 34—a spot where many good aspects of our neighborly neighborhood are crystalized; a place where you can finally meet a lot of the people you see walking around the streets on your way to the farmers’ market at Clark Park.
We hope you’ll come join us!