Studio — New York / Chicago / Austin
We design the space between people.
Coworking interiors for commercial landlords, startup accelerators, and boutique hotel groups. From the lobby sightline to the acoustic felt in the phone booth — every decision is a revenue decision.
Founding Note — 2019
The first project was a 6,200-square-foot former bank branch in Williamsburg. The landlord wanted twelve desks and a coffee machine. We gave them a lobby that made people slow down, a phone booth corridor that actually absorbed sound, and a communal table positioned precisely so that a founder sitting at one end could see the door — and the whiteboard — simultaneously.
Membership sold out in eleven days. The landlord called us about the next building before the paint was dry on the first. That's when we understood: flex space design isn't interior decoration. It's spatial choreography — and every sightline, every acoustic zone, every square foot of threshold is a decision with a dollar figure attached.
Studio by the numbers — 2019–2026
47
Projects delivered
2.1M
SF designed
94%
Membership fill rate
11 days
Avg. sell-out time
Project 001 — Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2019
The first eight seconds decide whether someone renews their membership.
The Threshold Study — Chicago, 2022
Most flex space lobbies are designed like hotel lobbies — which is to say, they're designed for transit. A desk. A badge reader. A potted plant placed by someone who wasn't thinking about sightlines.
We design lobbies as compression chambers. You enter, you decompress, you orient — and then the floor opens up in a specific direction that shows you exactly where to go. The reception desk is never perpendicular to the door. The soft seating is never against the wall. The coffee bar is always visible from the threshold, because the coffee bar is the first piece of proof that this place takes hospitality seriously.
"We thought we needed more desks. Jordan showed us we needed a better door."
The lobby problem is always a confidence problem. Members who feel uncertain at the threshold become uncertain members — they don't introduce themselves, they don't stay late, they don't renew. Solve the first eight seconds and you've solved half your retention problem before anyone opens a laptop.
Field note — Chicago project, 2022
We moved the reception desk 14° off-axis from the entry door. Membership inquiries increased 31% in the first quarter. Nobody noticed the angle. Everyone noticed the feeling.
Lobby A — Austin
Lobby B — Chicago
Lobby C — Brooklyn
A founder should be able to take a funding call three meters from a podcast recording.
Acoustic Zone Plan — Prototype Layout
Acoustics is the line item that gets cut first. It's abstract, it's invisible, and the person cutting the budget has never tried to close a Series A in a room where they can hear someone ordering a cortado.
We specify acoustic felt at 40mm minimum in every phone booth — not the 25mm most vendors sell. We design buffer zones between loud and quiet zones using the same principles as recording studio isolation — mass, decoupling, absorption. We model the NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) of every surface before a single panel is ordered.
40mm
Felt minimum
NRC 0.85
Booth target
3m
Buffer zone
"The acoustic spec saved us three members who'd threatened to leave. One of them is now our anchor tenant."
Acoustic booth detail — Austin project, 2024
Ready to spec the acoustics on your floor?
We deliver a complete acoustic zone plan as part of every commission.
Every flex space has a coffee bar. Almost none of them are in the right place.
The coffee bar is the load-bearing social infrastructure of a coworking floor. It's where the freelancer meets the startup founder. Where the accelerator cohort decompresses between sessions. Where the hotel member decides whether to come back tomorrow or use the lobby downstairs.
We position the coffee bar at the intersection of the main circulation path and the most visible sightline from the entry. Not tucked in a corner. Not behind a wall. Visible from the door, reachable in twelve steps, and surrounded by enough soft seating that two people who've just met can sit down without it feeling like a job interview.
The counter height matters. The stool spacing matters. Whether there's a power outlet every 800mm along the bar — that matters more than the espresso machine. We've seen beautiful coffee bars that nobody uses because the stools are too close together and there's nowhere to plug in a laptop.
"We had a beautiful kitchen that nobody sat in. Studio moved it six meters and added power outlets. It became the most-used spot in the building."
Coffee bar positioning study — Hotel Members Floor, Austin, 2025
Client Outcomes — 2023–2025
87%
Retention
Foundry Properties
Commercial Landlord — Brooklyn
Membership waitlist formed 6 weeks post-opening. 18-month retention rate: 87%.
+69%
Dwell time
Launchpad Chicago
Startup Accelerator — River North
Cohort dwell time increased from 4.2 hrs/day to 7.1 hrs/day after redesign.
22mo
Payback
The Meridian
Boutique Hotel — Members Floor, Austin
Members floor achieved 94% occupancy in month two. Projected payback: 22 months.
The Meridian, Austin
Foundry, Brooklyn
Launchpad, Chicago
Rooftop, Austin 2025
Free Resource
Download the Space Planning Primer
Forty pages. Eight projects. The questions every landlord should ask before signing a design contract — and the answers that separate good flex space from great flex space.
No drip campaigns. One email, one document.
The Invitation
Three floor plan commissions open for Q2 2026.
We take on a small number of new projects each quarter so that every floor gets the same attention as the first one. If your building is ready to stop being dead space, we'd like to draw it.
Fixed engagement fee · 48-hour response · No obligation until deposit
From the sketchbook — Jordan Mercer, 2026