NextFab Studio, once characterized as "Philly's nerd gym," is moving from University City to 2025 Washingtion Avenue. The collaborative workspace brings would-be inventors and shop-class standouts together the equipment they need to make their Elon Musk-style visions come true. There are more of these dabblers than NextFab's founders imagined, so now it's time for a larger space—and where better than West Washington Avenue, "the gritty home to plumbers, mechanics and supply outlets," as Flying Kite puts it.
While there isn't a lot of geek chic on Washington Avenue, there is a lot of space, including NextFab's new 21,000-square-foot building, formerly a custom iron workshop. Lest you picture it as a mechanized metal maw of a space, with grease-stained people in safety goggles, there's something you should know: There will be crepes.
Cafe L'Aube will have a crepe-and-coffee outpost at this NextFab Studio. Other fanciness includes private studios, a conference room with a large A/V system, lounges and informal meeting areas, and a 5'x10' 5-axis Flow Mach 4c CNC abrasive water-jet cutter. All of that takes time, though, so the grand opening has been pushed back to mid-January.
· Update: NextFab's Washington Avenue grand opening rescheduled for Jan. 17 [Flying Kite]