Coworking Summer Camp-style in El Segundo, California

 

The reception at El Camp
The reception at El Camp

Coworking is becoming more exclusive, more complex and more specialized. The coworking concept no longer exists simply as a casual place for any remote worker or budding entrepreneur to work in.

Many of these spaces now more frequently foster specific qualities in their members, whether it be industry, size, lease length, or level of community aspect, to name a few. And they’re also now more often being used as a strategic tool established companies can use to invest in their brand.

Stairway
Stairway

In El Segundo, CA, El Camp is a summer camp-inspired coworking community dedicated to a single industry – companies in creative marketing. Owned and operated by the advertising agency Ignited, El Camp’s completion was facilitated by Savills Studley, a global commercial real estate services firm.

Situated in a 55,000 square foot former aerospace manufacturing facility, the creative El Camp community actually houses the full Ignited team, along with more than 20 other companies operating in the marketing, media and technology space.

By developing a business model that involves residing in its own for-profit coworking space, Ignited not only benefits from growing its own brand awareness; it can also benefit from the very same cross-pollination networking opportunities that El Camp’s other tenant companies do.

Third Space
Third Space

“Our vision was to curate a mix of complementary organizations and services, with the overall goal of working together to help each other and our clients prosper,” said Eric Johnson, president of Ignited, in the project brief.

Tenant company size ranges from 1 to 25, and all leases are short-term – nothing longer than six months. This means that a lot of people with a lot of ideas are coming in and out regularly.

Ignited President Eric Johnson says his company did its research on securing the marketing-specific angle. El Camp seeks to tap into the overflow of people who come to L.A. for work in the entertainment business; with so many creative people in one region, many often redirect into other creative and marketing professions.

Ignited created a summer camp “map” to distinguish each floor.
Ignited created a summer camp “map” to distinguish each floor.

El Camp really does feel and look like summer camp. It’s lodge living room cozy to a ‘t’ – a space where aesthetics truly translate directly into a very specific vibe. To capture summer camp vibes, Ignited chose to separate from the popular, often overdone industrial/industrial chic aesthetic.

“We wanted to attract the creative marketing circuit, and we thought a lot about what type of places inspire and connect people,” said Mr. Johnson, in an officeinsight interview. “We landed on this idea of a really fun, summer camp, upscale lodge environment. Real camp is not upscale, but the energy here is right.”

Ignited design El Camp to help its “campers” to “share ideas and experiences, across teams and with other businesses, in a truly collaborative environment.”

ElCamp_2ndFl_Map_30x24_160607_v6Upon entering, tenants and guests find a reception draped in climbing rope. Deeper into the floor plate, a large-scale wooden wall borders an indoor fireplace. Dotting the landscape along the way are whimsical touches like a rope ladder dropping out of the ceiling.

In workstation areas, no physical separation exists between companies. Instead, Ignited chose to focus on providing spaces for eight distinct modes of work and living, including focus work, meeting space, informal coffee areas, and a presentation space in the form of an elevated auditorium-style area. El Camp’s layout is built on plenty of nook areas with couches.

Above all, Ignited wanted to provide flexibility to people working in creative fields; it wanted to punctuate the value of variety in creative fields like marketing.

2016-1003-elcamp6-floorplan“We wanted to provide the changes of pace and place that can help you to break through when you’re stuck,” said Mr. Johnson.

On the top floor, an old school library space ringed with a cul-de-sac of windows leads to a “hidden library hideaway” that serves as a privacy room for tenants to relax away from their desks or make a private phone call.

El Camp also provides on-site marketing-specific spaces like production and recording studios and in-house edit bays – spaces that small, growing companies would normally have to rent out and travel to.

 

To find furnishings that evoke a warm, inviting mood, Ignited collaborated with a designer who specializes in coordinating furniture purchases from Craigslist and other similar services. Almost all of the public space furnishings were acquired through Craigslist, and many feature reuse qualities like reclaimed wood instead of metal.

“We were able to create really interesting, funky, eccentric spaces by doing this,” said Mr. Jonson. “We found things with real character.”

2016-1003-elcamp8-thirdspace2Soft leather couches, earth toned walls and floors, and wood textured coffee table and workstation surfaces, are accompanied by plaid patterned blankets and other camp-inspired adornments such as a spinning globe, antique lanterns and trunks, a wall of colorful, vintage tennis rackets, and even a lamp made out of a fishing pole.

Summer camp is a tradition rooted in the outdoors, and El Camp delivers on this point. In its outdoor spaces, El Camp shifts away from living room cozy and a little more toward corporate modernity, but not without some signature summer camp inspirations – roasting marshmallows and competitive outdoor activities.

 

A pristine patio, with space for groups large and small, features a barbeque, fireplaces, and grassy space for games like cornhole (or “bags,” depending on who you ask).

When El Camp “campers” complete their six-month-or-less lease, it means the “end of summer” – an end to making new friends from different places and experiences. But, it also signals the start to a new year – a time in which to move forward. And for those adults out there who actually want to head back to summer camp after reading this, you can certainly do that, too!