New Work City

It wasn't until years after we closed our doors that I understood what New Work City really was.

It definitely wasn't a business venture. It was a business, sure—it made more than it spent—but that wasn't why we did it.

When I started to realize that I was an artist, and that community could be a medium, it dawned on me that New Work City was, more than anything, an art installation. It was my way of showing the world what I envisioned could be possible.

It was Manhattan's first coworking space—but the ensuing years have changed how people understand that phrase. In the pre-WeWork era, the coworking movement was known as being primarily a social movement—it was about getting people out of the house and giving them a place to gather in a way that laptops and remote work made possible for the first time.

The movement is still out there, still spreading, and still all about this—but the public perception of "coworking" shifted along the way.

New Work City was about creating space for people to gather in new and creative ways. We were home to dozens of Meetup groups, hackathons, parties, late night coworking sessions, Startup Funerals, fake startup launch parties, Presidential debate watch parties, and so much more.

We were a community, first and foremost—and we still are. Before we had a space we were a community—we could only ever have built a space because of the support we pulled together to do it. And, to this day, we still gather at least once a year for an annual holiday shindig.

Members of our community continue to work together, having formed lifelong bonds.

And our impact continues to reverberate, as hundreds of other leaders learned from our example to build communities and spaces of their own around the world.

After we closed our physical doors, I started my consultancy, New Work Cities—where I created resources and a mastermind group to support those leaders any way I could. I'm continuing that work through the present day.

NWC 1.0 - 200 Varick Street

NWC 2.0 - 412 Broadway

Legacy - New Work City's closing and afterlife as New Work Cities