Creating colorful coworking area for women is the goal of SheSpace
The table in an outdoor pavilion at the home of Houston interior designer Courtnay Elias is covered in samples of tile and carpet swatches — vibrant shades of yellow, orange, pink and green.
Orange and yellow are for Stephanie Tsuru and the pink is for her daughter-in-law, Katie Tsuru, who is her business partner in what soon will be the city’s newest coworking space — SheSpace, a venture of an allwoman team and designed for women in business.
Several years ago, coworking spaces became popular with entrepreneurs and the workfrom-home crowd who needed to occasionally be with other working people. Often crafted out of older buildings adapted with high-tech services and vintage charm, such as Headquarters in an East End warehouse or Wi+CoWork’s historic home in Midtown, they bring technology and services to people who are launching new businesses but don’t want the overhead of a whole office.
Elements of SheSpace had been percolating in the Tsurus’
lives for some time, but the spark to do something about it came from a trip to Israel, when Stephanie Tsuru met two women — an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Christian — who led a tour of a women’s center.
“I met all of these women who were just absolutely so oppressed on the outside, but in this women’s center they were literally dancing and singing and giving each other manicures and facials and learning job skills that they could use within that center,” said Stephanie, who for years has supported nonprofits that do work for women and children. “When I left there, I thought, ‘I am starting a women’s space.’ It was the power of women coming together. I was so overwhelmed — it still gives me chills.”
Stephanie thought about it day and night, and asked her daughter-in-law to join her. Katie, who worked 10 years in gas and oil, married Stephanie’s son, Seth Tsuru, eight years ago, and the couple has two daughters — 4-year-old Lucy and 2year-old Stella, who often tag along on business meetings with their mom and grandmother.
SheSpace will be part of a new shopping center at Interstate 10 and Studemont in the Lower Heights District and is expected to open in October. Monthly memberships start at $275 a month for access to community work stations, $415 for dedicated desks and $825 for offices that accommodate one to four people. There are also $30-a-month social memberships for those who want to attend events.
Branding revolves around the SheSpace name, so its noun — She — will be paired with all kinds of verbs: for example, SheReads for the bookstore, SheConnects for networking and SheGathers for events. Though the place is meant to help women and to encourage women to help each other, they’ll consider memberships for men who want workspace there, too.
The two women visited other cowork spaces but were ultimately inspired to follow their own dream.
“Usually, you should use a model for what to do, but we only used them for what not to do,” Stephanie said of what they viewed as a lack of personality in other facilities. “They usually end up feeling like empty spaces — unless you like pingpong.”
The 6,000-square-foot floor plan designed by their architect, Norgerie Rivas of estudio Architecture, has offices and large desks with community work stations, casual seating areas, huddle rooms, phone booths, a podcast room and a flexible space where they can hold fitness classes, social events or other gatherings. The coronavirus pandemic will be taken into consideration, at least when it opens, so people can work safely and with social distancing.
The new shopping center they’ll be in will have other stores anyone might need to get through their day or week, and SheSpace will also have mail delivery, dry cleaning pickup and, of course, bottomless coffee service.
There’s also a quiet room/ lactation room for new moms, something especially meaningful to Katie, who found herself sharing an empty conference room or simply pumping in a restroom after her children were born. They haven’t quite figured out an affordable day care option for moms but have agreed that babies up to 6 months old are welcome.
Though walls and floors largely will be neutral, major pops of color will be seen throughout. Right now, artist renderings aren’t exactly how it will look, but they show the pink-yellow SheSpace logo against a limegreen wall and a counter fronted in cute orange and white tile in the entry. Hardware on office equipment and fixtures in bathrooms will likely be fresh colors instead of the standard brass or nickel you find in plumbing catalogs.
The interplay of color and pattern is a signature of interior designer Courtnay Elias of Creative Tonic, the firm handling interior design at SheSpace. The shades chosen for SheSpace are feminine without being too precious, bold without being too bright.
“When Stephanie showed us the logo, everyone in my office was blown away. I love color and anything that’s dynamic,” Elias said. “I wanted everyone to love this space … for it to be a fun, energetic space to come in and get the job done.”
Rows of white tables fill the community space, and they’re paired with chairs in pink and green. For the walls, they’re looking at punchy graphic art by Gina Julian or works by other women artists, such as Reagan Corbett, Ellen Schuster or Maggie Dunwoody.
“Every space is on brand but a little bit different. Each bathroom is a little bit different. We wanted everything to have a little bit of a twist but with continuity,” Elias said.
SheSpace’s Lower Heights location is intentional, too, outside of the hustle and bustle of downtown, which can be inconvenient to some who don’t want to fight the traffic or struggle to find a place to park — as it was in our pre-pandemic world.
The Tsurus have been approached by some women who work for firms downtown who want memberships so they can meet clients in a different environment.
Initially the Tsurus thought their primary demographic would be women entrepreneurs from 20 to 40 years old, but that range is widening.
“Everyone is interested. A woman in her 60s asked ‘when can I sign up?’ ” Katie said.
“So we are now all about all women. And I’m seeing a lot of creatives being interested, so we’ll have to see what we can do for that population as well,” Stephanie added.
For Stephanie Tsuru, it’s a new opportunity in her own life. Her three children — a son and two daughters — are grown, and much of her time has been spent in volunteer work and fundraising for nonprofits.
She’ll turn 60 soon, and at a time in life when other women start slowing down, Stephanie is hitting a new stride.
“The biggest obstacle for women my age is fear. And fear is contagious — women pick up on that from each other,” she said. “I know I’m going to fall and stumble and skin my knees. That’s how you learn. Women my age hear what we’re doing and are like, ‘wow.’ ”