The Shop Workspace opened the doors to its new South Market location June 3, marking the coworking brand’s second footprint in New Orleans and its return to the city following national expansion into Brooklyn and Salt Lake City.
The Shop SOMA, located on the ground floor of The Standard condominium building at 798 S. Rampart Street, offers 5,400 square feet of coworking space, 11 private offices, 12 dedicated desks, 30 commons memberships and two conference rooms, plus event space, phone booths and an array of amenities.
The opening ribbon cutting was hosted alongside the New Orleans Chamber, the New Orleans Downtown Development District and TrayAway, a local tech firm expanding within the new space.
The launch arrived with strong early momentum, with more than two-thirds of private offices leased before the doors opened.
“Cutting the ribbon on The Shop’s new SOMA workspace will deepen our roots in New Orleans where we started, while also offering an exciting new space for the most innovative professionals to grow their businesses,” said Anne Olsen, director of co-working at The Shop Workspace.
The Shop’s first New Orleans location, situated at the Contemporary Arts Center, has operated since 2017 and currently counts more than 500 members, with 100% of office space fully leased for the past year. That demand underscored the need for a second location.
EskewDumezRipple — the same firm behind The Shop’s CAC location and its Salt Lake City outpost — designed the SOMA location in collaboration with The Domain Companies. The guiding concept, developed by EDR, is called “Dawn and Dusk Downtown,” a direct reference to the Crescent City Connection bridge and the quality of light over the Mississippi River at the edges of the day.
“The steel truss structure, the quality of light over the river, the sense of the city in motion are all images that drove the palette, the materiality and the mood we were after,” Olsen said. “It’s a space that feels like it belongs to this specific place at this specific time of day.”
The Standard’s double-height ground-floor volume shaped the design from the outset. Rather than treating the soaring walls as a challenge, the design team used them as a canvas by incorporating decorative lighting, artwork and a feature wood wall to create warmth within the larger architectural shell. The mezzanine level, made possible by the building’s height, provides open hot-desking with a breakout lounge area, while the main floor holds higher-traffic communal zones, conference rooms, private offices and a street-facing area the team calls The Sunroom.
“The Sunroom, which integrates the coffee and social zone, is designed to be the place you actually want to spend time, not just the place you pass through to get somewhere else,” said Olsen.
Jill Traylor, principal and director of interior design at EDR, noted that rather than placing private offices along the perimeter — where they would capture daylight and prevent it from reaching the interior — the layout keeps open work areas along the windows, allowing natural light to travel deeper into the space.
The color palette also takes its cues from the dawn-and-dusk concept: warm neutrals and wood-trimmed wall details form the base, with accent moments in blues that reference the river at dusk and warmer tones evoking the bridge at golden hour.
Traylor described the palette as inspired by the Downtown skyline at dawn and dusk, with pale blushes, dusty blues and a neutral backdrop, alongside warm leathers, textured woods and marble accents. The double-height walls on the first level are designed to eventually incorporate a painted mural.
Another primary design consideration came in the form of acoustic performance. The space uses acoustical wall panels in high-use zones, structure-integrated phone booths for improved sound performance, acoustic dampening wall coverings, and a solid partition between the conference room and adjacent spaces. Area rugs and carpet tiles in select areas provide additional absorption.
The Shop SOMA partnered with Ferrara Showman Gallery and Wayne Clark of Wolf & Co. on art curation. Every piece on display is available for purchase, directly benefitting local artists and creating a rotating collection from the start.
“Rather than treating art as an afterthought, the goal was to create moments throughout the space that feel layered, collected and distinctly local,” noted Olsen.
The Shop SOMA plans to work with neighboring South Market tenants for catered conference lunches and member events, with a dedicated set of perks and discounts tying members into the broader neighborhood.
“Downtown New Orleans continues to attract companies and entrepreneurs looking for dynamic spaces that foster collaboration and innovation,” said Seth Knudsen, president and CEO of the New Orleans Downtown Development District. “The expansion of The Shop further strengthens the ecosystem of businesses, talent and flexible work environments that are helping drive Downtown’s growth.”
Matt Schwartz, co-CEO of The Domain Companies, echoed that sentiment.
“In creating and growing South Market, we’ve sought to bring the restaurants, retailers and services that continue to make Downtown a vibrant and engaging place to live and work,” he said. “The Shop SOMA is an exciting addition to the fabric of the Downtown community.”
Members of The Shop SOMA receive access to networking events and programming at the CAC location, as well as The Shop’s Brooklyn and Salt Lake City spaces. Through the League of Extraordinary Coworking Spaces (LeXC), members can also access more than 100 coworking spaces globally.
QUICK LOOK
Square footage: 5,400
Number of Employees: 3
Persons in Charge: Hugh Breckenridge
Architect: EskewDumezRipple
General Contractor: Labadot
Interior Décor: EskewDumezRipple and In-House
Initial Brand Development: SquareFeet Design and In-House
Art and furnishings: EskewDumezRipple and In-House
THE SHOP SOMA
798 S. Rampart Street, New Orleans
504-517-1200 // ShopWorkspace.com // @ShopWorkspace
