Sublet my *amazing* office/studio: available from September until next spring.

I find it amazing to think that fall is almost here. In just a couple of weeks, I’ll be off to New York City, Vancouver, and then heading back to my home in Oaxaca, Mexico for the winter. This summer has been epic and memorable in every possible way: I only wish I could have captured every little adventure in as much detail as the recent five days in Montreal. There’s always next year!

With the end of my Toronto stay in sight, it’s time to take care of a few logistics. Number one on the list is finding a magical person to sublet my space in the shared office/studio space known as Studio Huddle. People sometimes ask why I keep an office in Toronto when I’m away for so much of the year, and there’s only one answer to that question: I literally love the people I share the space with, and the space itself is the perfect oasis away from the other distractions in life.

Studio Huddle is roughly two thousand square feet of old-school style studio space on Niagara Street (just south of King, just west of Bathurst). North-facing light, white walls, and old hardwood floors – yep, it has got it all. The space is shared by a dozen craft artists – mostly glass and metal artists – a photographer, and a couple of digital workers, including yours truly. Physically, the studio is split into five separate spaces: two craft studios, a glass studio, an office, and the large shared main space (~1000sqft). I rent a spot in the office that is located in the front of the space (north side, in photo above); it’s filled with light all day and is home to roughly two digital workers and the occasional drop-in from the more creative types. More often than not, I have the office space to myself for most of the day. Rent also includes a couple of days of exclusive use of the main space, which I must admit I’ve never managed to make use of.

As mentioned, my studio mates are a super-creative bunch, and there’s just about every tool and piece of equipment that you can imagine here: think of it as a “hack lab” for non-technical types. I have to admit, it’s been a breath of fresh air to work in an environment where people are not focused on digital work … it’s grounding in some way to watch people work with their hands, and even to participate from time-to-time (now I know how to silk screen!).

Okay, enough waxing poetic about how great the space and the people are, down to the details:

• Sublet is available from roughly September 1st to Feb 28th, but the dates are flexible
• The rent is $190/month and includes everything, taxes, high-speed wireless Internet, two locked storage shelves, studio fees, etc.
• Also included (photo above) is the use of my fancy-schmancy Herman Miller Mira chair, a laptop stand, a beautiful cactus, and several reference books (Canadian Oxford dictionary, Oxford Canadian compact dictionary, Bartlett’s Roget’s thesaurus, and The Chicago Manual of Style).

You should be:

• Responsible: you need to be able to remember to close windows, lock doors, and so on if you’re the last person here.
• Thoughtful: if you need to be on the phone all day, it’s probably not the right space for you.
• Lightly equipped: there’s a good amount of space for a laptop and the usual office accouterments, but probably not for a giant three-screen desktop computer set-up.
• Friendly and flexible: most days, you’ll probably be one of two or three people using the space and it’s pretty quiet, but some days there’s more going on and people are more social and chatty. If you need 100% silence all the time, probably not the right fit.
• Creative: I think the space would be great for a freelance writer or journalists, a video editor or multimedia artists, a Web Maker, or something along those lines.

I think that’s it. The start and end dates are flexible, but it would be great – if you’re interested – if you came to see the space before September 1st.

Let me know if you’re interested by e-mail or hit me on The Twitters.