Workspace made of reclaimed materials has a lot of soul

As producer for SuperFriendly and Arbitrary, I work out of a coworking space in Greenville, aptly named CoWork Greenville. It's an independent collaborative community hidden in the foothills of South Carolina.

As a workspace it's a true testament to the city's reclaiming efforts, with restored original tin ceilings, oak rafters, brick walls and salvaged materials employed for upfitting.

Despite the hearty beauty of the building, CoWork's soul comes from its community – that's what lured me here three years ago. There's around 20 full-time members and a small horde of semi-regular tenants.

Regulars include personalities like Matthew Smith, who's working with a few world class startups; Etsy senior product designer Marco Suarez; and Chris Merritt, working with Commerce Guys. Add southern courtesy, a few startups and some lone wolves and you have an invaluable gathering of minds.

A different way to work

As a collective, CoWork has birthed a number of counter-culture practices. There's Zero Day, where we drop work for a half-day in favour of ad hoc conversations at 10 or 20 minutes each.

There's Grok, a tech conference based on open sharing. And finally, Beerdiots, an excuse to quit work at four on Fridays so that we can gather at Barley's, America's two-time Most Arrogant Bar (awarded by Stone Brewing) to hash through our current challenges or passions.

Our shared café area has a coffee cart, complete with fridges, which is made entirely from reclaimed materials. Artwork by friends and members fill the walls, including an Instagram series called Peaks by Matthew Smith. A recreation area for lounging and a conference room top off CoWork’s perfect environment. As for my contribution, a lava lamp and a lack of shoes round out the best work space I could ask for.

Words: Matt Cook

Producer Matt Cook works remotely for design studio SuperFriendly and digital studio Arbitrary. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 257.