Behind the Buildout: Workbar Harvard Square, Vol. 2
Creating a productive space from the inside out
If you were to walk through the current space of our future Workbar Harvard Square location, you would be seeing behind the scenes—literally. The infrastructure, the mechanical systems, and all the things that get hidden behind the finished product.
It’s not polished. It’s not pretty. But it’s the most honest version of the space. And, more importantly, it’s an essential piece of what makes Workbar locations so special.
The experience people have later—the ability to focus, to collaborate, to stay for a full day and feel productive—is shaped right now, often in ways you’ll probably never perceive. Invisible or not, the behind-the-scenes stuff is where we spend most of our time.
But if these decisions are ones that most people will never see (or even think about), why do we care so much about it? It’s simple. The decisions we make now are the difference between knowing what photographs well, versus what holds up over the course of a workday.
You’re probably not worried about walls built all the way to the deck so sound doesn’t bleed between spaces. Or wondering if there are systems that adjust airflow based on how many people are in a location. You might not have ever considered how important it is to have a productivity-focused layout that intentionally invites different types of work, from calls to collaboration, to heads-down focus.
From an outside perspective, it would be easy to underestimate how much these details matter…but we promise you would notice if they were missing.
If someone can’t take a call without getting side-eye, the space doesn’t work. If the air feels like you’ve been in a Vegas casino by mid-afternoon, people start to disengage earlier than they otherwise would. If everything looks right but no one can actually get through a full day without hearing their neighbor’s zoom calls, the design has failed, regardless of how it presents itself.
Sounds kind of miserable, right?
That’s exactly why we don’t cut corners on the things that count. We’re focused on how a location performs for our members—even going beyond layout and infrastructure.
Building community from the outside in
One question that leads every Workbar buildout: How do we build something that actually belongs here?
As a Boston-born company, we know first-hand that Harvard Square isn’t just another location on a map. It has its own energy, its own patterns of movement, its own expectations around how people gather and interact. Anyone from the area knows you can’t replicate that vibe by dropping in a pre-determined layout from another market and hoping it translates.
So we don’t.
We spend time in the neighborhood, talking to people and paying attention to where energy naturally builds and where it falls flat. Then, we iterate on the plan so the space feels like an extension of what already exists, not something operating apart from it.
People might not be able to articulate why a space feels right, but they know when it does. And they definitely know when it doesn’t.
Shaping a member-focused space with insider feedback
Whether we’re building from the inside out, or outside in, one thing always remains true: what works for members matters most. What I’ve learned is that you don’t simply build great workplaces for people, and that’s the end of it. You build great workplaces with the right people, over time.
That’s our reason behind bringing back Founding Members for Harvard Square.
Early in Workbar’s history, I didn’t fully appreciate how critical the first 90 days after opening really are. It’s when people start to test the space, where they sit, how they move, what works, and what doesn’t. It’s also when you get the most honest feedback you’ll ever receive.
Founding Members play a crucial role in that process. They’re not just early adopters of a location, they’re active participants in shaping how the space functions. They’re the ones who notice when something that made sense on paper doesn’t quite hold up in practice.
Founding Members help turn a completed buildout into a workplace that truly works the way it needs to.
Building great workplaces is a process
While construction has a defined endpoint, the process of building a productive workplace doesn’t. There’s always more to learn and new ways to iterate on what works. But every Workbar space has to start somewhere, and we always choose to start with the essentials: the infrastructure, the community, and our members.
By the time Workbar Harvard Square officially opens, much of what you can see today will be covered up. You won’t even know how much thought and intention went into the systems and structure that make every Workbar location special. And that’s a good thing, because it means they’re working how they’ve supposed to.
If we’ve done our job right, we’ve accomplished what we set out to do: created a space where professionals can come in, do their best work, and want to come back the next day.