Closet Phone Booth

[Kevin Haggerty]

As we start to map out how we're going to layout and organize our space, something we're looking at now is how to provide spaces for phone calls. This is a little tricky because we're upstairs, and also, we don't have a lot of room to work with.

That said, we do have several closets that we don't really need for storage, and were playing with the idea of converting them into phone booths.

The thought is to replace the doors with ones that have a glass panel, so to create the illusion of more space (less claustrophobic), and to add an aesthetically pleasing hanging light, a stool or stoop seat that doesn't take up much space, a small floating shelf for laptop/phone, an outlet to plug in devices, and some soundproofing panels to help deaden the sound.

Have any of you ever tried anything like this? Any thoughts one way or the other?

[Jerome Chang]

Sorry to be blunt, I have not found a single phone booth that was worth its salt…except for the prefabricated types.

Architecturally, they don’t comply w/ federal ADA laws, and therefore any local building codes as well.

Operationally, staff ends up policing them - they kick people out so they don’t squat, and so others can use them.

Acoustically, they leak sound, the very reason you have them. Those that don’t invite eavesdroppers are those that are far from others, so therefore privacy is not from the booth, but from distance.

Ergonomically, they’re not usually vented or air supplied via HVAC, so they feel stuffy.

Physically, they’re constraining.

Financially, you spent $ without meaningfully achieving any of the above objectives. Worse, the space you allocated to a phone booth could’ve been used for another revenue generating space.

My advice is if you don’t need the closet to save space, demo it to create more main space…or better yet, carve out a small meeting room for 2.

JEROME CHANG

talk to us: (323) 330-9505

chat w/ us: http://www.BLANKSPACES.com/chat

WEST: Santa Monica | 1450 2nd St (@Broadway)

CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)

EAST: Downtown | 529 S. Broadway, Ste 4000 (@Pershing Square)

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[Kevin Haggerty]

Thanks for the feedback, Jerome. That all makes sense.

I'm clear on what you think we should not do as a solution to give our members space to have phone calls and video conferences, but any recommendations on what we should do?

Going outside would be cumbersome as we are on the second floor. We just don't have the budget for one or multiple prefab models (Zenbooth, Framery, etc). We also don't have enough space to be able to afford giving up a room for this purpose.

I appreciate the input! :)

[Katherine Warman Kern]

I agree with Jerome. We don't have plugs or chairs to discourage "squatting" and looked for a wall of nails that we could program to emerge on a timer but couldn't find one.

Just kidding.

I am creating a new meeting room system that integrates with our member billing account and may consider including the phone booths on it. That way if someone wants to use more than their fair share and is willing to pay for it, then fine. In general, this is consistent with our strategy. We charge one price and include everything. For those who use more than their fair share we don't say no, we figure out a reasonable way (both in terms of amount to the customer and administration) to charge money for excess usage. Most folks are fine with this and other members appreciate that they aren't paying for it.

Katherine Kern

[Liz Trice]

We've had good luck with a closet turned into a phone booth. It is small (about 5'x5'), has a heavy wooden door without a window, foam sealing where the door meets the frame, and a sweep to block the gap under the door, carpet on the floor, and a chair. We have white noise speakers both inside and outside it. It's not a place where you'd want to spend more than an hour, but provides a good sense of privacy for skype calls, and you can only hear loud voices through it. We've considered building another one next to it, but would definitely insulate and double up on sheetrock. 

Jerome, what brand of pre-fab phone booths do you like? 

[Jerome Chang]

5x5 is generous from what I usually see. Is it ADA compliant?

I tested out https://www.jabbrrbox.com @GCUC in NY earlier this month. Solid. They have an ADA compliant version as well, but of course, it’s at least 5’x5’…likely 6’x6’ all said and done. The smaller model starts at $13,500 - gulp. There are a few others, but I haven’t personally tried them.

JEROME CHANG

talk to us: (323) 330-9505

chat w/ us: http://www.BLANKSPACES.com/chat

WEST: Santa Monica | 1450 2nd St (@Broadway)

CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)

EAST: Downtown | 529 S. Broadway, Ste 4000 (@Pershing Square)

[Alex Hillman]

Be sure to give this group's archives a search for this topic of phone booths, it's come up a bunch of times before.

I can speak from the POV of having had no dedicated phone rooms in our original 1800 square ft space, having had a makeshift closet phone room in 4400 square feet (with all of the shortcomings Jerome mentioned, it still got used every day), adding a phone call "hood" during an expansion to 8800 sq ft, (that was far from soundproof, but made creative use of some otherwise unusable space and turned out to be rather popular) and custom-building a bunch of ADA compliant call rooms in our space last year. 

For those keeping track, that's 10 years in operation before we had what some would consider 'passable' phone rooms.

Having lived with all of these variations, my answer is to work with what you have, and manage member expectations accordingly. You get to choose the primary value you provide. Focus on what you have, and do it as well as you can. You'd be amazed what you can not have and still have happy members, when you focus on the stuff that matters. Even now that we have phone rooms and conference rooms, we tell people on tour that if they spend a lot of their day on the phone or on video calls then we're probably not right for them.  

Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to provide every service that an office has (or every startup wants) in order to be successful in coworking. :)

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[Angel Kwiatkowski]

I think the necessity for phone booths is often born in spaces that are smaller and where you can't get away from one another. Our first space had 1 space to hide in for calls and it just wasn't enough. For the past 5 years, we've had a large closet split into 2 rooms http://coherecommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Phone_Rooms_Cohere_Coworking_Space.jpg. They are very small. 3'x4' and before Jerome freaks out about ADA, our building is not ADA accessible *at all*. You have to take stairs to get anywhere as it was built in 1968 so we didn't have to comply with those modern standards. 

Here's the kicker, there is no ventilation in those rooms so after an hour you kind of have to leave or you'll die of heatstroke. 

Other places to take calls if the phone rooms aren't your preference: patio, landing, microniche (another closet turned phone/work area but with just a curtain for privacy), drop in conference room, living room. We also set the expectation in our orientation packet that you can ask the room before you take a call. If it's merely a conference call where you will sit quietly until you give your update, then we will usually allow you to just stay at your desk.

And like Alex said, if people need to be on the phone much of the day (salespeople) I usually steer them away from Cohere before they join.

Here is a picture of the microniche: http://coherecommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Micronice2_Cohere_Space.jpg

And of the landing where people go to take calls http://coherecommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Landing_Chair_Cohere_Coworking_Space.jpg

Also notable: you don't have to decide what to do until after you open.

Angel

[Jerome Chang]

and before Jerome freaks out about ADA, our building is not ADA accessible *at all*. You have to take stairs to get anywhere as it was built in 1968 so we didn't have to comply with those modern standards. 

haha. No freaking out. Just advising from the point of view as both an architect and coworking owner/operator.

FYI, ADA compliant doesn’t mean 100% of your office or building is compliant. However, when you renovate/add in general, you would make at least those items compliant.

Not complying basically says you’re ok with or intentionally discriminating against others. Sorry, not to sound harsh, but that’s the intent of the federal level of this law.

But yes, like Angel said, make do with what you have.

JEROME CHANG

talk to us: (323) 330-9505

chat w/ us: http://www.BLANKSPACES.com/chat

WEST: Santa Monica | 1450 2nd St (@Broadway)

CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)

EAST: Downtown | 529 S. Broadway, Ste 4000 (@Pershing Square)

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[Angel Kwiatkowski]

Yeah, if someone with a disability somehow found themselves up our 3 exterior stairs, then over a high threshold then up not 1 but 2 flights of stairs into the coworking space--yes, they would probably be upset with our small closets.

[Jerome Chang]

Clarification: ADA covers all disabilities, even those with a cane, partially/fully blind, etc. ADA isn’t just for those in wheelchairs.

So yeah, that means some disabled people can climb all those stairs. :-/

JEROME CHANG

talk to us: (323) 330-9505

chat w/ us: http://www.BLANKSPACES.com/chat

WEST: Santa Monica | 1450 2nd St (@Broadway)

CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)

EAST: Downtown | 529 S. Broadway, Ste 4000 (@Pershing Square)

[Angel Kwiatkowski]

Indeed. My comments are reflective more of logic not the lawfulness/compliance of ADA in new construction/remodels. There's a logic in my thought that no one using a wheelchair could get upstairs so the size of the closet doesn't matter. If they are sight/hearing/cane using, then size of closet wouldn't matter. Again, this is logic based, not ADA law-based.

The historic building that Cohere Bandwidth is in was completely remodeled so is ADA on the inside but the 8 in step up to our door remained due to landmark preservation. So, again, the logic of having an 8 inch step-up makes no sense even *if* the interior is completely ADA. So while ADA is super critical and important, it doesn't often seam together even with existing buildings when you have landmark rules in the mix.

[Jerome Chang]

Magical word: historical designation. Yup, that can make some of the compliance difficult and not intuitive

Note that ADA covers a litany of items down to the location and size of door handles. A lot of these help you comply very easily. Another example: placards for the visually impaired that denote bathroom gender or that a space is for a phone booth.

Also for a phone booth, if you do add some kind of shelf or work surface, it's easy to install the right height and size to comply. Not extra $. :-)

Jerome

[Jeannine van der Linden]

We do tend to think of wheelchairs when we think of the ADA, but it is of course a much broader question.  

There are to my certain knowledge at least three members of this google group who are disabledand for whom an absence of the ADA means in greater or lesser degree an inability to work, go to school, socialize, eat out, and do many other things.  And in all of our coworking spaces there are certainly people with disabilities, some of whom have chosen to keep this from us and also people who did not join because of accessibility issues which we know nothing about.  It's a blindness, a case of "you don't knwo what you don't know".

Approximately 20% of Americans has a disability.  All of us will have at least one between borth and death, folks who do not have one now are the temporarily abled. Disability rights are civil rights.

Anybody who wants to talk about accessibility issues and coworking has my full attention and support. It's mah thing. I can be found every Tuesday at 9 pm Amsterdam, 3 pm New York, on Twitter taking part in #AXSChat on accessibility and a11y issues and everybody is welcome to join us.  Today we are chatting with Joe Devon, one of the founders of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. (June 18th for the curious)

People who work with physical structures and accessibility regularly come on; many structural problems are easily solved shortly after there is the will to do it. There are many ways to skin any particular cat when inclusion and accesssibility are important. Compliance is not the same thing as inclusion and sometimes works agoinst it of course.

[Jerome Chang]

Thank you Jeannine.

Say what you will about behemoth Microsoft, but I was impressed when I read about their inclusive design approach:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Design/inclusive

Basically, the typical design strategy is to design for, say, 80%, then comply with news of the fringe 20%.

Inclusive design is to design for and from the perspective of the 20%, and somehow and quite effectively, the 80% is more than addressed, sometimes an even more elegant design solution is the result.

:-)

JEROME CHANG

talk to us: (323) 330-9505

chat w/ us: http://www.BLANKSPACES.com/chat

WEST: Santa Monica | 1450 2nd St (@Broadway)

CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)

EAST: Downtown | 529 S. Broadway, Ste 4000 (@Pershing Square)

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