As Coffee Houses Get Noisier, Freelancers Seek Alternative Work Spaces

March 1, 2007 — -- Ever wonder who those muffin-filled, highly caffeinated people furiously typing away on their laptops, or staring off into space, at your local Starbucks are? And, furthermore, how do they ever get anything done?

In the last decade, as Starbucks and other such chains have cropped up all over the United States, the corner coffee shop has transformed from quiet and contemplative to bustling and frenetic. But, as these places are used like offices, libraries and conference rooms, they've become too noisy for some, leaving the self-employed to seek an alternative work space.

No longer satisfied with the impersonal nature of the local café, a new type of work environment is popping up across the country from New York City to Portland, Ore., and even in Copenhagen, Denmark.

It's called the alternative work space, and as ambiguous as it sounds, these locations provide freelance writers, free-agent programmers and small-business owners of all sorts with a desk, a phone, a fax machine, a copier and, what may be even more important to their daily routine, a sense of community.

"You can commiserate with people, and it also makes the job more real," said Brian Lutz, a tennis instructor who runs his own Web site and works in an alternative work space.

"The mission statement is to provide a flexible, appealing alternative work space for independent entrepreneurs who shy away from the typical corporate farms," said John McGann, founder of 116 West Houston, a co-working space in New York City's Soho district. "They want a space they can collaborate in, a space they can work out of that provides an alternative to coffee shops or their home, where they tend to find a lot of distraction and get stir crazy."

His business is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and provides a more professional sibling to the coffee shop. Surrounded by conference rooms, a shared kitchen and even a lounge, the central focus of 116 West Houston is its communal work space with desks, computers, printers, arm chairs and, yes, coffee.