Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with officespace

Can you help me find office space for a non-profit in NYC?

jasbet07 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:08:39 -0800

Can you help me find office space for a non-profit in NYC? A friend of mine started an NGO in SF in 2004. A year ago they expanded to NYC but have been using donated office space and will need to find a new home starting September 1st of this year.

They are: an arts and education non-profit that facilitates global education through youth programs, development of curriculum for high school teachers, and the creation of a publication about global issues.

They are looking for: someplace fairly convenient to Brooklyn and/or Manhattan and subways, 400-1000 sq ft of office space for 2-3 employees (preferably with some room to grow). Ideally they would have access to shared conference room, color printer/ copy machine, kitchenette, wireless, phones. Their budget is $1300 or less per month. (Bonus points for a window or two...only in NY is this perceived to a be a "luxury item.")

Anyone know of:
(1) something specific,
(2) know of another organization that is looking to share space, or
(3) know of resources for such requests in the city?

I saw this but I think the nonprofit status adds a different element since I imagine there could be organizations that deal specifically with this sort of thing.

How to set up a server room with a 10 TB rack?

ShawnStruck — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:40:21 -0800

Going to be moving into a new office space, where will will get to redesign some of the space for our needs. We will need to set of a 10TB server rack-- need to figure out how much space should we set aside for a server room. If you were starting to set up one from scratch, what would you start considering? What sort of things do we need to worry about-- room temparture, or airflow or both? Cooling racks? How big would the room need to be?

This would be a perfect job for an intern. If I had one.

LiveToEat — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:47:20 -0800

MS Excel filter: I'm editing a huge spreadsheet and Excel doesn't like my zip codes. How can I quickly fix this? more after jump... I'm doing a mass mailing and I exported about 9000 names from our customer list in Filemaker, and Excel deleted the zero at the beginning of the East coast zip codes. (i.e. Worcester, MA 1602 instead of 01602) There are about 500 zip codes like this and I have to believe there's a quick way to make a universal change and stick in the missing zero at the beginning of the zip codes. I already formatted the cells to recognize nunbers as text, but that still leaves me to fix each one by hand.

Any ideas on what to do? And please explain it in simple steps because I'm not as technologically inclined as some.

Where to get paisley shirts?

Brian James — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:00:11 -0800

Where can I find button-front casual shirts in paisley or paisley-like patterns, like the one worn by Peter Gibbons in Office Space? I'm interested in where to get this specific shirt, or shirts of a similar pattern. I rather like the busy pattern in muted colors.

Looking for office space

Nathanial Hörnblowér — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:37:15 -0800

Help me find office space to sublease in Arlington or McLean, VA. My two-person company is looking for two offices (~175-200 sf total) to sublease in N Arlington (Clarendon/Courthouse/Rosslyn/Ballston) or McLean. We don't need to be near a Metro, but do need parking available. I check Craigslist daily and the City Paper weekly, and have posted notices on various listerves, but am not finding much out there. We've tried going through commerical Realtors, but know we are small potatoes compared to the larger companies looking for larger space. Is there some hidden resource I can tap into?

Paint that cube farm!

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:55:09 -0800

What color(s) should we paint the walls in our cubicle-filled office environment? My office is a large, open space filled with cubicles in a suburban office park. It looks a lot like Initech, frankly: grayish-blue carpet, gray desks, gray cubicle walls with matching dull gray paint on the walls.

New management is willing to put some money towards upgrading our environment. Paint is cheap and the gray walls are universally despised, so it's an easy place to start. Interior designers, however, are not cheap, so as resident graphic designer I've been asked to suggest some colors to repaint our walls.

Considerations:

-- Big, long walls that are highly visible over low cubicles

-- Flourescent lighting, minimal natural light

-- No exposed brick, ductwork, or any other "interesting" interior architecture. This place looks like Dilbert-ville.

Due to the nature of our business, we almost never have clients or potential clients in our office, so this isn't a project for marketing purposes -- just something to make life nicer for cube-dwellers like me.

Are there any good books or websites that discuss improving a sterile, boring cube-farm? I know that advertising and design firms like to show off their awesomely creative spaces, but we don't have good lighting, good architecture, or a lot of money to throw around.

Our workforce is pretty young and hip; I'm not confined to just neutrals, but I don't want to get too wacky either. I'm looking for colors that will make our office feel warmer and more pleasant without making people edgy or annoyed. Hope me, hivemind!

Anonymous because it's about work, duh.

How to use my office phone at home?

Brian James — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:13:35 -0800

Suppose I wanted to rig up the phone in my office at work such that I could access all of the phone's functions from someplace else, not on the office PBX...like, say, at home. Is this possible, and how? The extensions are all Cisco 9160, so I assume it's a VOIP network. Is there some gateway device I could get that I could plug my office phone into, which would then connect to some Internet IP, which could then have a phone model identical to the office phone, and can function as normal?

I'm not out to just receive messages, I want the full functionality that attaches to actually using that phone model to place calls, but from a remote place.

Trying to find a cheap, private workspace in New York

kingfisher, his musclebound cat — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 09:39:18 -0800

Where can I find a small, private workspace in New York (Lower Manhattan or Brooklyn)? I do not need it to be fancy, but would need something like a tiny fortress of solitude . . . I would, in fact, prefer a less fancy space. Nothing for meet-n-greet business types, but more for people who are hidden away trying to make something. Concrete or wood floors, plywood walls, etc. All fine with me and perhaps more appropriate. Oh, cheap, too. I mean relatively cheap.

I need an office, but need a clue as to how to pick one

reenum — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:44:48 -0800

I need to lease some commercial space. There's I've finally decided to take the plunge and open my own business. I'm an attorney, so I don't really think I need more than 250-300 square feet starting out.

My problem is that I don't have the first clue as to what to ask agents about each piece of property. I've already read this thread before concerning commercial leasing, and read the article suggested.

The problem is that Joel knew the basics and had an idea of exactly what he needed. I don't. I need help in figuring out what questions to ask and what information I need to know in order to make an intelligent and informed choice in leasing office space.

Also, it would be helpful for any business owners or others to let me know what sort of space they had when the initially set up shop.

Thanks!

Where can I have a meeting in New York?

crickets — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:45:33 -0800

Where can I find office space by the hour in NYC? I'm working with some friends on a startup, and we're having a hard time finding good meeting spaces.

We've tended to meet at Starbucks and the like, but we need just a little more peace and a little more room. I need a space for occasional 1-2 hour meetings with 3-4 people, the only requirements being power and WiFi. And not too expensive.

Anyone know Mike Judge or Stephen Root?

Danelope — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:29:08 -0800

Office Space: Are the squirrels merry or married? I've engaged in a scathing invective-laden debate with several coworkers about a scene in Office Space wherein Milton describes a pair of squirrels. I maintain that the squirrels were "married", a sad testament to Milton living vicariously through rodentia. My naysayers claim that the word in question is "merry".

I need a definitive, preferably firsthand source for verification. User-submitted quotes on IMDB or Wikipedia are insufficient proof for these chuckleheads. I'll be checking the DVD subtitles (assuming there are any) this evening, but even those are created by a third-party vendor. Anyone know Mike Judge or Stephen Root?

I need tips on how to find office space in Castaic, CA.

autojack — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:05:54 -0800

I need tips on how to find office space in Castaic, CA. I find myself in an unusual situation... a chunk of the non-commercial FM radio band was recently vacated in Castaic, CA. I'm representing a fledgling radio station that intends to attempt to acquire that space on the dial and relocate our station there from the Bay Area. Unfortunately... we're all in the Bay Area, and we are required to have a business address in Castaic in order to apply for this license with the FCC. I have no experience renting office space, a roughly two-week window in which to accomplish this, and a very limited budget.

Essentially what I need is a single room or very small suite, zoned commercial, which I can rent for $300-$400 per month. A month to month lease would be ideal, but a three or six month arrangement is possible. The issue is that we can't even APPLY until we have a location, but if we're turned down we can't afford to be saddled with an empty room in the middle of nowhere for a year or more.

I have no idea if this is even feasible, let alone where to start. Craigslist has no listings. I don't really want to deal with a real estate agent. I don't really want to have to drive to Castaic and look around for offices for rent. It may be possible for us to rent space within a certain distance of Castaic, perhaps 25 miles, but that hasn't been made clear to us yet.

My raven-like writing desk

Eideteker — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 07:46:09 -0800

Fancy-desk question! Can you help me determine if a blotter/desk pad is right for me? So I've got a really nice desk here that is being liberated. I'm getting a desk specifically for my computer later today from Staples (to keep from getting sidetracked on the Internet while doing research at my regular desk), and while I'm there, I'm thinking about picking up a desk pad/blotter. I thought that this one (1, 2) was the nicest when I was in Staples the other day. I think I saw the smaller of the two (I remember it being about $25), but they both have the transparent cover sheet that you can lift and slide things under (which seems easy to clean). It looks nice, but I haven't really done any research. I'm still not sure I wouldn't rather have one with sheets of paper I can make notes on (I make little notes ALL. THE. TIME. But is replacement paper expensive/hard to find?). I'm a student and a writer, and I occasionally like to work with paper and [fountain!] pen (the pen fetish is another ask.me for another ask.time). The desk I'd be using for my non-computer tasks is a very nice black affair, with lots of space (like this, but about twice as big and not quite so ornate). I'd like to keep it nice for years to come. I also think that once my computer equipment is off of it, a blotter would be a nice accent. Will it be of use to me? Are there better blotters out there for the money? I know there are a lot of designers on MeFi; I'd love to hear your MePinions.

New Boss Same as Old Boss?

HyperBlue — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 19:07:59 -0800

The Fortune 500 company that I work for has been bought by a Fortune 100 company. I am in IT. "Efficiency Experts" sent from our new company will be interviewing us soon. What is the most effective way to respond during the interview to both keep my job, and advance my position? I'm not sure a Peter Gibbions 'Office Space' attitude is the right approach but... (MI) I've been with the original company about 7 years. In the last 4 years alone I have survived a downsizing, an outsourcing, a reorganization, and two complete global network rollouts. I have had 4 different bosses and have "dotted lines" to 4 more bosses. There are several services for which I am sole support. I am the 'go-to' guy and (hopefully without too much self aggrandizement) have been the key to the success of several major projects. I have, however, been too engrossed with work to self-promote, much less work the politics necessary to advance my career.

How do I get this across during the interview? Thanks in advance.

Commercial Leasing

SpecialK — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 15:13:59 -0800

Any commerical leasing people in the crowd? I'm about to lease office space for the first time, and I'm not sure how to go about it or what the lingo means. I understand the service level, like triple net and full service, and I understand that just about everything is negotiable. However, I don't know what the arrangements are between leasing agents of various types and how to do things without stepping on someone's toes, and I don't understand what the difference between Class A, B, and C is.

I do know that I need approximately 800 to 1000 square feet, that I need it to either be wired for ethernet already or to have a TI allowance for them to get it all wired with power and ethernet, and that telecom already has to be run up to the building. I need one enclosed office and one conference-room type space, and the rest of it needs to be open. I've also identified a general area and particular buildings I'd like to be in.

I also have one leasing agent that I've been talking to whose last office was leased out while we were talking, but he's offered to do listings lookups and act as a representative for me -- reassuring me the whole while that I wouldn't owe him anything, the landlord pays him. I don't know if I really need his services or what a potential futre landlord's opinion of someone else getting involved is, especially if they already have a leasing agent. (One of the leasing agents of one of the buildings I'm looking at is also a client, so I -really- don't want to piss him off.)

Also, what will I need to provide proof of ... such as financial backing, revenue streams, finaical statements, etc.? My company's very young, so there's no real credit history and revenue stream wasn't great until the past two months because it was just me and I charged accordingly..., but I've finally got the momentum to grow, ... as soon as I get a few more pepople on staff... which requires the space to keep them...

Question number 6473

scarabic — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 10:56:08 -0800

Ack! I'm in bed with the flu and I want to watch my Office Space DVD, which I just unwrapped, but when I put it into my OSX iBook and try to play it, I get a weird window that looks sorta OS9-ey with the message: "System Check: press enter to scan for dvd virus." It's really creeping me out. As I'm sapped of all strength, I really don't want to go into the other room and try it on the console. Anyone have any idea wtf this is? The "enter" button it gives me is PINK fer gad's sake.