Hello Beauty Shoppe users, friends, and co-working enthusiasts!
We hope everyone has recovered from a fun-filled holiday season and now you are off to a great New Year!
To recap December’s issue of The Parlor - The Beauty Shoppe’s very first monthly newsletter – we featured the user profiles of flex-time user and consultant Anna Roberts, and full-time users Leigh Yock, Kellee Maize, and Lani Redinger of the marketing firm Nakturnal. Also in December’s issue, we introduced a referral campaign that credits your TBS account $25 for every new flex-time user you add to our co-working community, as well as programming ideas and other user-inspired modifications to the space mentioned in our User Feedback section.
Co-Working Outside Pittsburgh - We wanted to take a second to mention two co-working communities we find to be pretty darn cool.
Indy Hall – or Independents Hall in Philadelphia, PA started out in 2006-’07. They have old and rugged-looking hardwood floors we really dig, and obviously a close proximity to Independence Mall -Liberty Bell, Merchants’ Exchange Building, Second Bank of The United States – yeah, we know, things that are just plain cool. http://indyhall.org
Betahaus – Berlin, Germany. Now if you’re going to Germany, why didn’t you invite us?! It’s a family trip? Well, okay, we’ll sit this one out. Family trip or not, you’re probably going to make your first few stops at a Spantenhaus, Hofbrahaus, the BMW Museum, or the thousands of locations where you can order Wiener Schnitzel. Good. You should. But you should also consider stopping by Berlin’s hip co-working spot. We already know Germans do design right, but this place takes it to yet another level. http:betahaus.de/lang=en
Monthly programming event – On the last friday of every month, The Beauty Shoppe team will host a Happy Hour at 5pm on the right side of the office. We’re calling it Last Friday.
January’s Last Friday intersected another programing event we are slowly introducing to the space.
If you have visited the right side of the office in the past few weeks you most likely noticed the art work on the wall. This is our attempt to support local artists by showcasing their work in The Beauty Shoppe space.
Introducing local artist Rob Larson. Rob Larson Photography. local/national – advertising/editorial. phone 412.965.0579. web – roblarsonphoto.com. email – rob@roblarsonphoto.com
Follow the link below to find Rob’s photo shoot of the inside of the YMCA building on East Liberty’s Whitefeld St. http://roblarsonphoto.com/client/y
An Interview with Full-Time User Ian Lipsky - Ian is an engineering hydrologist with eDesign Dynamics – an environmental engineering firm specializing in low-impact development, water resources planning, and habitat restoration.
Can you tell us more about eDesign Dynamics, and how you got your start with the firm?
A colleague and friend from grad school was finally leaving city government and moving into the consulting business, and I invited myself along. Three of us at the company studied hydrology at Cornell, and two of us studied engineering together at The Cooper Union. We’re a tiny team, but we’ve put ourselves at the cutting edge of stormwater management and use of Green Infrastructure. EDD’s office is in New York City, and we’re nicely connected with government agencies and some high-end design firms. This gets us some really interesting work. Some of the higher-profile projects we’ve been working on in NYC: Brooklyn Bridge Park; Brooklyn Botanical Gardens; East River Park, Governors Island, Astor Place. Some of our projects have been winning awards: A women’s school campus in Rwanda has been getting a lot of international recognition, even while it’s still being built; and a design for a flavelawith rainwater capture and reuse in San Paulo won a Holcim Award. We’re having a lot of fun.
Are there Pittsburgh or Western Pennsylvania locations where you would like to see eDesign Dynamics have a stronger impact?
We would all love to play a role in Pittsburgh, which has many of the same kinds of water resources problems New York City has. Both places have what’s called a combined sewer system, which means that stormwater and sanitary water flow to the same pipes. During wet weather, those pipes overflow to our rivers, releasing whatever was sitting in the pipes at the time. Combined Sewer Overflows are currently the biggest compromise to water quality in this region. Lots of great improvements were made by regulating industrial discharges, but our rivers still suffer from exceedingly high nutrient levels, making aquatic life less rich and less diverse. What we recommend is the practice of diverting stormwater from away from the sewers to green spaces that promote plant growth, habitat creation, and infiltration to groundwater. In densely developed urban areas this is exceedingly difficult, because there is so much pressure on property to be productive. This is especially true in New York City. Here in Pittsburgh we have a slightly different problem, which is that nobody wants to spend money on anything. This is why we haven’t spent too much time marketing our services here. Plus, to be competitive in Pittsburgh, we would have to alter our billing rates. New York is a far more lucrative market.
If you had unlimited funds to use on projects at Schenley Park, what would you do?
A couple of years ago we had a chance to submit our services for work on the Panther Hollow watershed restoration project, and I got very excited about creating terraced wetlands above the creek to detain and infiltrate runoff before it floods the valley. This would have been a great demonstration project for other areas dealing with urban runoff and combined sewer overflows. The habitat opportunities in Schenley Park are tremendous.
As a local entrepreneur, what have been your biggest challenges and your most enjoyable moments?
I don’t think of myself as an entrepreneur any more, though I had started a business here about ten years ago. At that time, the biggest challenges were financial – worse than I expected. But the reward was to watch something I had created become a local landmark and a place that has great meaning to a lot of people. I sold the Quiet Storm six years ago, and I still get approached by people who tell me how that place changed their lives. We had good times.
Based on your own experience, what three pieces of advice would you give an entrepreneur starting out today?
Don’t underestimate your start-up costs; don’t expect to be profitable right away; keep your payroll down by doing everything yourself.
What has been the attraction for you in settling in Pittsburgh and pursuing projects in the region?
I’m very attracted to the idea of rebuilding from rubble. Reusing abandoned or deteriorating resources is the greenest form of development.
If we handed you a magic wand and asked you to add one piece of infrastructure to the East Liberty/East Side community, what would it be?
Elevated commuter rail, or a separate storm sewer system, or lots of new park areas that also receive stormwater from adjacent areas and support small treatment wetlands, or bike-only streets… how many times are you going to let me wave that wand? Oh wait – one more time, please? This city needs to build its police department a new firing range for training. The one they use now is practically right across the street from my house, and we hear gunshots all day long. It’s pretty ridiculous – no other city this size trains their police force outdoors and in the city limits.
What is your favorite neighborhood in Pittsburgh?
Larimer, naturally. It’s got the most potential.
Favorite local meeting spot?
Shadow Lounge. Justin Strong is one of my heros.
You’re going to lunch: BRGR or Pusadee’s Garden (Lawrenceville)?
Where are all the lunch trucks? I want a taco stand or an Indian truck nearby. Park it right outside of Zeke’s!
What aspect of our co-working space here at The Beauty Shoppe is your favorite?
I just love that I have a desk with my stuff on it and nobody messes with it and I don’t have to pack it up at the end of the day. After working from home or coffeeshops for so many years, this place is perfect for me.
The Beauty Shoppe’s The Parlor monthly newsletter is aimed at keeping you informed on the latest developments in co-working, entrepreneurial ventures in Pittsburgh, and Beauty Shoppe updates, upcoming events, and more.
As always, this newsletter will serve as a bulletin-board for our full – and flex-time users, a medium for announcing Beauty Shoppe events and gatherings, and an additional way for users and friends to learn more about each other. Our intent is to be informative and to encourage you to reach out to us with questions, concerns, and suggestions on how to make co-working and our co-working community a better place to work.
Best,
- The Beauty Shoppe Team
