Costa Mesa’s Urban Workshop celebrates a decade of projects
The question that greets visitors to Urban Workshop makerspace in Costa Mesa is simple.
“What will you make?” quizzes a sign above the front doors, along with the logo of a light bulb going off in someone’s head.
In a decade’s time, the answer is quite a lot.
Urban Workshop, nestled near John Wayne Airport, celebrated its 10th anniversary with an event on July 13.
The 28,000-square-foot space is Orange County’s largest do-it-yourself makerspace and workshop.
Urban Workshop founder and chief executive Steven Trindade said the business has had more than 4,300 members in the last decade, with member businesses generating about $170 million in revenue for the local economy.
There have been nearly 12,000 adult students and more than 4,000 youth who have taken classes.
Trindade said a drafting class he took as a freshman in high school in the early 1980s in rural New England sparked something in him.
“The drafting class just clicked,” he said. “It’s what I’m trying to mimic, right? Expose the kids to a bunch of different topics, so hopefully they can get that spark like I did. Some will, hopefully, and maybe some others don’t. At the very least, they’ll learn what they like and don’t like, and maybe they’ll just pick up a hobby out of it.
“Even that would be huge. How many people did we know during COVID who were going out of their minds because they didn’t have a hobby to occupy them? A hobby is like the healthiest thing in the world.”
Urban Workshop is currently in its hands-on STEM youth summer program. There are four different levels of programming featuring popular classes, including a popular one where students can make their own vintage-style hardwood skateboard.
Trindade believes in breaking down stigmas.
“When I was back in high school, shop class was the for the dumb kids,” he said. “I still see that sometimes … Whenever I get that negative attitude, I’ll talk to the parents. Say it’s a parent who’s a doctor or an attorney. Your kid would be a better doctor or surgeon if they know how to handle tools, right? Your kid would be a better patent attorney if he understands how things work, right?”
The shop is also trumpeting its welder training and American Welding Society certification testing.
Chris Lynch, a welding instructor who has been working at Urban Workshop since December, said it offers the only accredited testing facility in Los Angeles or Orange counties.
Lynch, who said he drives more than 80 miles one-way to work, built 16 welding booths in the back of the warehouse.
“You can come to us as a beginner, you can come to us with experience or if you just want to take a test,” he said. “All skill levels [are welcome], and I want to start like a ‘Weekend Warrior’ program, where we start getting people coming in on weekends. Once they get a taste of it, they just want to continue.”
Businesses, of course, are also welcome in the space. It operates much like a gym, with varying monthly rates that give varying levels of access, starting at $149 a month for an individual hobby membership.
Rob Culpi is the co-founder of Vantopia, which uses Urban Warehouse for its day-to-day activities. This includes use of the CNC router for cutting, which employee Laura Costelloe said is the most utilized machine in the whole place.
Vantopia sells van conversion kits, which are then shipped to customers in pallets, starting at about $5,000. Culpi described it as “kind of like IKEA for your van,” with common customers including travel nurses and digital nomads, people who travel freely while they work remotely.
Forklifts on site make the shipping part easier, Culpi said.
“The space is great, because we get to use the CNC machine but we also get to use some of the more flexible space, especially if we’re doing installs,” he said. “Also, it’s great for packing up the kits and shipping them out, too.”
Urban Workshop features a wood shop, auto shop and metal shop. It also includes a conference room, creative work assembly area and retail store, and has continued to grow in recent years.
Trindade said he promoted Kamy Mata from a front-desk position to a full-time marketing job, which has helped matters. David Bradshaw is the general manager.
“Even after 10 years now, people are like, ‘I live around the corner and I’ve never heard of you,’” Trindade said. “It’s like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ It’s tough.”
Still, he continues to look forward.
“You get working so hard in it, you don’t even realize that time flies,” he said. “Ten years, it’s been cool, it’s been fun, but it’s been hard work. There’s a lot of cool people around here, I kind of wish I had taken a little more time to get to know them a little better, have a little fun with it.
“Maybe that’s the focus for the next 10 years, I don’t know.”
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