They may be square, but the Cubists coming to downtown Rochester are on the level.
Think of it as your office away from home with a new angle.
A group of business people are shaping up a new co-working space called The Cube, which describes the blockiness of their small building at 717 South Broadway. That's behind the Rochester Area Family Yparking lot.
Spearheaded by David Hewitt of Mama Meg's Frozen Novelties, the details of this project were hammered out by a collection of 15-20 local entrepreneurs.
So what is co-working?
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"Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values, and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space," said Hewitt.
In Rochester's Cube is a 360-square-foot office space where members, who all own and run small creative businesses, can get out of their home offices or coffee shop booths and work next to similarly minded people.
It is designed to encourage collaboration and creativity.
The "Cubists" signed up to work there, at least part-time, are Erik Giberti of AF-Design, freelance designer/marketer Sarah Miller, Nate Nordstrom of BrandHoot, Beth Ebnet of Trio Marketing and Events, Bucky Beeman of Snappy Stopand Hewitt.
The space can accommodate about eight people, along with a conference room seating for five. Very few members will be working there every day, so that allows for a larger pool of members.
It features a business broadband network, wireless printing with scanner, copier, a white-board wall, member-only events, coffee and Mama Meg's ice cream sandwiches.
"This has been a dream of mine for some time. It is really quite exciting," says Giberti, who has trying to bring the idea of co-working to Rochester for three or four years. "The time just wasn't right until now."
For the online application developer who has worked out of his Rochester home for the past years, being part of The Cube means he'll have a place to go on occasion to work and brainstorm with other creative people.
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And when Giberti needs focused, "heads-down" work time, he still has his home office.
Why do this instead of just leasing a small office or a cubicle somewhere?
"What is really interesting in the co-working model is the creative and interaction that you have by not having those boundaries," he says.
