Electric Works Tour
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by TimLast Thursday we got invited by creative space to go on a site tour of the Electric Works building site.
Kyle and I went down at lunchtime to go and see the building and get an idea for where the new office will be.
My first impressions were so far so good. From the outside it is starting to look pretty impressive, and on the inside, although there are no internal walls or fittings, you could get a good idea of the space.
Toby Hyam took us round and was doing a good job of selling the building as we went. Apparently some of the businesses that have signed up for spaces will not completely make up their mind until the whole job is finished so I guess it’s up to the creative space team to try to get them to understand their vision for the building.
Having moved into other offices and had time to think a bit more about the prospect of moving into Electric Works, I have found myself weighing up the pro’s and cons of moving over there.
On the up side it will be a great building. I think it is very much going to be Sheffield City Councils poster child when it comes to pimping Sheffield as the new place to be for the creative and digital industries. That means lots of press attention (I hope) and lots of support (I really hope), which for a small company like us is a good thing. Toby was saying that they are looking to get in lots of high quality furniture and fittings to make the space a truly desireable place to be. In fact, he said it was going to be the nicest building they have been involved with so far and having been pretty impressed with the facilities at the round foundry in Leeds, I can’t wait to see the finished product here in Sheffield. Toby also reminded me of the regular networking events they are planning to hold. Parties, exibitions, shows and that sort of thing to give the tenants an opportunity to get to know each other better. This could be very handy for meeting people to collaborate with on larger projects. I think that being a small company it will good to keep close to other small creative companies for skills exhanges and other such things.
On the down side, the cost of renting the office is going to be almost double what we’re paying now and although it is a bigger office, it’s not twice as big.
Also, whilst the offices themselves will be arguably the best Sheffield has to offer for small businesses, their location is not. Sure they’re right next to the bus & train stations which is great for visitors (especially during conferences), but for the people that work in them, I can’t think of many nice places in close proximity to go eat, entertain clients, have informal staff meetings or after work beers. There is the Showroom, but that’s not a lot. In our current location we have all of West Street and Divison street to keep us amused.
That said, I won’t have to make the decision anytime soon. Apparently the building won’t actually be ready until March 2009 because the internal fit out has had to be delayed until the external work is finished. That’s 10 months away and a lot could have happened by then.
On a final note, Did I mention the slide? No? I wasn’t sure if it was going to actually happen, but Toby says there is definately going to be a spiral slide which runs from the 3rd floor down to the reception area at the front of the building. How cool is that!!?? I keep telling people about it, and nobody seems to believe me. As sad as it sounds, I think that is the single greatest thing about the building and those that know me well will find it no surprise that the office I have reserved is on the third floor. Heh heh.
Electric Works from the rear. Our office will be in the top right hand corner.
This is where our office will go. It will stretch from the window to the fire escape and will be 5 windows wide. Got that?
This is what will be the view from our office window. Should be fun watching the crazy’s hanging out in the bus station.
This is inside the front of the building taken from the 3rd floor looking down to where reception will be. You can’t really see properly because of all the scaffolding in the way, but this is where the slide will go.