Bean Bags, Bike Tracks, and Balloon Pits: Space Design at the Hive
Have you ever wondered who lived in your room before you? What dinner parties were hosted around your kitchen table before you moved in? Or why there’s a weird patch of paint above your dresser? What are the past lives of the spaces we love, where we lounge, laugh, cry, and sleep, and how did these spaces evolve to become the way they are today?
Today, we take a deep dive into the past lives of the Hive building, and how it came to be the design center it is today.
When I walked into the Hive this morning, I was greeted with warmth – glowing lamps line the hallway, while colorful sticky notes form a faux wallpaper covering the very bones of the building in ideas and dreams and dumb jokes.
But when I asked Linda Shimoda, Creative Platforms Designer and Hive Historian, about the first time she walked into the Hive, she told me, “It was scary.”
“The only lights that were on were by the kitchen, and what’s now Fred’s office. I didn’t even know where the light switches were. I remember the first time I walked in thinking, “Well, I hope we’re not in this building for very long.”
This was back in 2015, when the Hive was just barely more than an idea, and the space was much smaller – consisting of just a few rooms.
“My first impression, to be honest, was that it was too small to be the robust 7C creativity center that I was interested in coming here to create,” Fred Leichter, Director of the Hive, told me. “But then I poked around and discovered there was a hallway and a whole loft up above and all this space that you couldn’t see at first glance. That excited me. I felt that if the Hive could have more of the space that’s in this building, we could do something amazing with it.”
Where did this good-bones building with empty lofts and promising yet deserted hallways come from?