(soft music) - You know, this place is a canvas.

This place is an opportunity for creatives, just like us to make a mark.

You can do things here that you can't do in other places.

That's pretty compelling.

(soft music continues) Assembly was all about, let's make a mark to show everyone this is here.

It's happening in a really big way.

(soft music continues) We made Assembly to be sort of the center of gravity for the creative and technology industries here in Hampton Roads to bring amazing creative and technology companies together, have them share sort of a space under one roof, do all the amazing work that they're doing for brands around the world, products and services.

And, see what happened when those people all got together.

It's an arresting space.

When you walk in, these sort of towering ceilings, natural light everywhere, the historic character of the building, the terrazzo floors, the exposed ceilings.

I mean, it's a stunning space on its own when you think about it through the lens of what it's made to do is I think where it gets really exciting.

You know, we've built this huge common area through the middle.

We've cut this atrium through the center of the building and it's all about not just creating a travel corridor through the building but creating those connections between people.

As you walk through this first phase, this first building, you're seeing all these amazing companies, all the people in this work, literally building world-class products and services.

Just to take that in, not just the character of the building but the character of what's happening here is probably where it gets exciting on another level.

- When we opened WPA, we immediately kind of followed Drew to the core of downtown as did many of our other friends who started companies.

It was writers, architects, artists working together to attract and retain talent in Norfolk.

All of us had been grappling with the idea of in order to accelerate our own companies, we needed to have all of these spaces and tools at our disposal.

We needed large meetings spaces.

We needed casual meeting spaces.

We needed podcast rooms.

None of our companies could afford to do any of those things on our own.

And thinking about this in terms of pooled or shared resources, could we do this in such a way that we could outfit a building with 15,000 square feet of shared amenities and, you know, not only save on resources doing that, but actually have these spontaneous collisions where we're running into other people, who can help push us and ideas and our companies forward.

So that's really the genesis of the idea.

And then that took a very physical form, in the design of the building.

How do you design a building so that it welcomes people in, it draws them up through central spaces where people are, you know, are almost forced to run into each other.

And that's the stair that spans from the lobby up to the fifth floor, the new penthouse.

And that's how we run into each other every day.

- We were the first tenant to move into Assembly.

We are the front door to the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem here in Hampton Roads and the 757.

We're so privileged to have studios, which is a one of a kind model be housed in an office campus, as unique as Assembly, where we're surrounded with innovators and creatives and people that are challenging the status quo in whatever their respective industry is.

Being able to come together to share ideas, to be able to network, to be able to connect.

The magic comes together all of the time, connecting investors, mentors, people that are running successful startups, everything in the middle, that all coming together under one roof is just absolutely invaluable.

My grandfather was an architect and he said that anybody can design a building, but what separates the good from the great is all in the details.

And there has not been a detail that has not been carefully thought of throughout this entire project.

It's hard to believe that it's a 102 year old building that we're standing in, 'cause it certainly doesn't look like that.

- The building was originally designed as an exhibition hall.

So think, world's fairs.

It was a showplace for you know, anything that they wanted to house and showcase in the region.

After that, it became the Ames and Brownley Department Store.

I know my grandmother remembers that.

She would come downtown to go shopping and to have lunch with my grandfather who was down at the Royster Building.

Over time, it changed to Rice's Department Store.

And if you walk around downtown now, that's the department store that everyone remembers.

- The building itself has about 10,000 square feet per floor.

We've added some mezzanine space between the first and second floor.

And then we've also been able to add some rooftop space so that there additional function up there.

You walk in and you feel the presence of a sort of boutique hotel where you can just land and start working.

We tend to lean into the idea of co-working space, but this is kind of taking it to a next level.

I went into it with a healthy understanding of what we would find, and it taught me that I didn't know quite as much as I expected to about the building.

I knew enough about the construction of the time from past projects.

Also learned quite a bit about the historic approach to buildings like this, not as a preservation project, but just as honoring the building at that moment in time.

- There was certainly a lot of dreaming and a lot of pinning and sketching and all of that for years, probably, better part of a year before we actually sat down and started doing this.

- Drew is the type of client that wants to see almost every possible iteration.

So with every programmatic piece or every room in here, we kind of tessellated in every different direction so he could see what it looked like or felt like to have the sunlight come through with the shared meeting room here and the coffee shop here versus this other location.

So we probably have 50 different floor plans for this building.

It took some time - Goal number one is bring out the character of the space.

I mean the character of the space by itself is remarkable.

If we can just bring that out, we get a magnificent building.

And then our challenge was how do we add to that, a modern character that respects the history and feels appropriate for the space, but brings it to life as this modern business hub.

- It's the difference in how someone answers the question, why should I go back to the office?

We've all been very comfortable working from home.

We could dress comfortably, we're close to the fridge.

We could take walks.

Why in the heck would anyone want to come back to the office?

And I think the answer is a really well designed space that allows you to collaborate and to work together efficiently and have spaces that feel like home.

- It made no sense financially.

It was a stretch to say the least it's, uh, you know, put really everything on the line for this project.

It was about the vision.

And, you know, I think we've realized a part of that, but there's a huge piece of this vision that has yet to come.

So, that's, what's keeping me going.

(upbeat music)