08-04-2025
Switchyards bringing ‘neighborhood work club' to Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A new concept of shared workspace being billed as the first 'neighborhood work club' will be coming to Birmingham this spring.
Switchyards, a company with 24 clubs across the country where members can have 24/7 access to quiet spaces to work and network, will open its 25th club in Birmingham's Avondale neighborhood on May 19 in a 4,200-square-foot space located at 3606 Sixth Avenue South, just a few blocks from Avondale Park.
Brandon Hinman, creative director for Switchyards, said the club will be limited to 250 members, which will be opened on May 15. Membership costs start at $100 per month, which includes access to all other Switchyards clubs across the country.
For Hinman, Birmingham felt like a perfect city to open Switchyards' newest club.
'We love neighborhoods and we love cities,' Hinman said. 'We love Birmingham and its iconic neighborhoods, so this was a no-brainer.'
In each Switchyards club, there is an open floorplan for working, as well as individualized phone booths for those who need to take calls. There is also free coffee provided.
Hinman said Switchyards' aim is to be a kind of 'third place' between home and the office.
'We've had 'third places' for food and other things, but not as much for work,' he said. 'That is what makes this unique.'
Colloquially, 'third places' refer to places outside of home and work where people tend to congregate, be it a bar, bookstore, cafe or park. Oftentimes, these places would be open afterhours and serve people looking for community outside of the typical '9-to-5' lifestyle.
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg explored the cultural and anthropological significance of 'third places' in different communities in his 1989 book 'The Great Good Place.'
'The character of a third place is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with people's more serious involvement in other spheres,' Oldenburg wrote. 'Though a radically different kind of setting for a home, the third place is remarkably similar to a good home in the psychological comfort and support that it extends…They are the heart of a community's social vitality, the grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing aspect of the American social landscape.'
Hinman said Switchyards has strived to make each club a mixture of 'the best parts of working in a coffee shop, a college library and a hotel lobby.'
'In all of our Switchyards, I want people to feel two things: something functional and practical to solve a need, as well as feeling something when you're here,' he said.
Switchyards first began in 2019 in Atlanta, where it now has 12 clubs. Last year, the company received $5 million in capital investment from Bullpen Capital. According to Rough Draft Atlanta, this funding would allow the company to open an estimated 200 locations across the country over the next five years.
Hinman said 10 Switchyard clubs were opened last year and that the company aims to open 15 more in 2025.
An open house of the club will be held May 14, the day before memberships go on sale.
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