The three-year lease Adam and I signed on the Rocket Factory space is nearly finished, so we’ve been making plans to vacate. The shop never really worked out the way we hoped it would – it’s too far away, the roof leaks, and it’s impossible to keep the place warm or clean. Nor have we taken on any of the large Burning Man projects we intended the place for, so it’s been sadly underutilized. We gave it a good try, but it’s time to let the place go.

In the last week, however, I’ve stumbled across a new vacant commercial space much closer to home, written up a plan, gotten four of my artsy friends on board, and set myself up to launch a brand new shop / studio / makerspace. It’s a great venue: right near home, in the Burner Triangle neighborhood where most of my friends live, with a garage, good power, heat, and light, running water and its own bathroom and shower – at the same rate per square foot we’ve been paying in Ballard! In four years of looking at shop spaces around Seattle, this is the best place I’ve ever seen. Given the zoning restrictions on Capitol Hill and in the Central District, I would bet that the total number of spaces like this in existence could be counted on one hand. I feel very lucky to have found it and glad that there are other people willing to join me in the venture.

This will be a bigger project than the Rocket Factory was: more space, more people, more uses – but it feels like the right place and the right crew at the right time. It won’t be open to the public, like Metrix or Jigsaw Renaissance, but it is definitely supposed to be a social hub, albeit on a smaller scale. I’ve believed for years that the groovlabs / mezbian burner community could do great things with a shared art space, and this time around maybe I will be able to make it happen. I’m looking forward to seeing what we make of it.

First, we need a name.