When Cybernautic moved its headquarters from 900 W. College Ave over to 2404 E. Empire St, one thing became clear — their new office space was roomier than they needed, which gave them a cool opportunity to fill a need in their community. Chad Parker, Cybernautic's owner and CEO, and I had long dreamt of creating a coworking environment similar to WeWork and others commonly found in urban metropolitan areas.
Overall, this was much more of an opportunity than a challenge, one that immediately excited both the Cybernautic team and myself, but with any opportunity, there are unique challenges to implementing it. In this case, the challenge was considering the differences between a metropolitan area like Chicago and one like Bloomington-Normal.
In Chicago, a coworking space isn't too concerned with parking, and shared open space is pretty common. In Bloomington, however, there's much more of a premium on parking, and private space is much more highly valued. So while we saw immense value and potential in this opportunity, we knew there would be things to consider in design and layout.
Bearing in mind the unique considerations of a smaller metropolitan area like ours, we designed a unique space unlike any other coworking office in Bloomington-Normal. Currently, Co:Create has 11 offices leased out to a variety of local businesses, including creatives, architecture firms, ad agencies, financial planners, & lawyers.
This was another fun projected that benefitted the city I call home, and I was proud of what our collaborative effort was able to come up with.
