Chawla gave us a tour of his one-of-a-kind 18,000-square-foot SoHo workspace.
Fueled
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Rameet Chawla
“I worked with two buyers to source most of the items in the space. They traveled to various markets/vintage stores, sent me pictures and I’d pick the items for them to buy. I also designed a few of the pieces myself.”
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The Collective
"If you ask most people where they'd most like to work, they'd say their living room, but growing your business by holding meetings in your living room isn’t really the best route. When we built this, there was no real coworking space that didn’t feel stale. I kept hearing about Google and all these other cool spaces and I thought how dope would it be if we could create a space that felt like a living room where you were hanging out with all your friends and fractionally share it with other startups. The Collective is run at cost; it’s my way of giving back to the startup community.”
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Front Desk
“The front desk is one of the pieces I designed myself. Initially it was going to be a door. I had a vision of a tufted leather door with heavy wood trim, but then I found a vintage copper elevator door so my door idea became the reception desk. From here you can also see the names of our conference rooms, which are based off obscure British neighborhoods.”
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Front Door
"This is the elevator door I had turned into our front door."
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Snacks
"These get restocked every day. I'm actually surprised that it's 5 p.m. and there's this much still left."
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Candy
"Every Tuesday we restock our candy selection. We try to get vintage candies like Red Hots, Atomic Fireballs and Smarties. I actually don’t eat much candy. If anything, I’ll have a Red Hot for dessert when I come back to the office after dinner. As for the fruit and cucumber-infused water...a fun fact — we spend $300 a month on ice!"
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Pops
“This is where we keep our ice cream – it’s People’s Pops – fresh fruit frozen into pops. It's the direction we want to go in. I feel bad giving people sugar with all that candy we have in the front, but it’s a means to an end. We just moved into this space in May, but I’m hoping to sign a lease in the next three months for a new space where we will have a full kitchen serving farm-to-table food. It will be a stepping stone for the restaurant I want to open.”
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Ping Pong
"This is our ping pong area. People often gather around here for lunch."
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Signage
"This one's a favorite."
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Signage
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Conference Room
"I tell people these are my relatives."
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Communal Area
"This area with the couches is communal. Twice a month we have a baker come and make fresh pastries; we also have a coffee bar, piano, popcorn machine — all these elements tie into the idea of creating a space that feels like working out of your living room with friends. If this was your apartment, you'd want to entertain, wouldn't you?"
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Whiskey Room
“This is our largest conference room. We always have about 30 to 40 bottles of artisanal whiskey lining the shelves. They’re all old school brands from the U.S. or wherever else we can find cool bottles – anyone is welcome to help themselves to some. We’ll also use this space for some of our smaller events.”
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Non-Traditional Conference Room
“This is one of our non-traditional conference rooms. A lot of times people want to lounge, but don’t want to do so in public, this is a great space for that.”
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Hat and Umbrella Room
“I made this chandelier myself using hats I bought on eBay and Etsy. It uses 15 watt bulbs so they don’t create enough heat to be a fire hazard. We usually have a lot of umbrellas in here as well, but it’s clearly rainy season because they’re almost all gone.”
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Secret Room
“This is our secret room. When the light is on it means it’s in use. From the outside it looks just like a closet but if you open the door it actually leads into a big room.”
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Rameet's Desk
“I’m usually in meetings, but between meetings I work from my desk. I work a lot. I’ll work all day then go to an event/dinner and come back to the office. Eating healthy keeps me fueled.”
