Three new coworking and event spaces for Carleton University students are now open at Haven.
Haven Connect offers three rentable spaces above the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)-owned cafe. The three spaces are named the Sunnyside Suite, the Seneca Room and the Creator’s Studio.
The new spaces are designed to accommodate students and include services like printing, projectors, audio and visual recording capabilities and a small kitchen.
“We’re a very multi-faceted space that services a wide variety of people,” said Haven manager Samuel Prentice.
Haven is a not-for-profit cafe run by CUSA and located off-campus on the corner of Seneca Street and Sunnyside Avenue. Last fall its textbook consignment service offering lower-price textbooks officially closed, while the cafe space remained open.
Prentice began working as the manager at Haven in 2022, spearheading the creation of Haven’s cafe, and now, Haven Connect.
The space above the cafe was previously functional apartments, but Prentice said it was renovated into these new coworking and event spaces shortly before he began working at Haven.
The space was officially announced in an Instagram post on Oct. 15, but has been open since September said Prentice.
Prentice said the goal with Haven Connect is to create a quiet and relaxed environment to encourage productivity.
The Sunnyside Suite acts as a coworking and event space which can hold up to 20 people. The Seneca Room can be rented as an individual study space or as a larger meeting space. The Creator’s Studio has capabilities for streaming and podcast recording.
“I’m very glad that it’s finally open,” said Kiran Niet is a fourth-year global and international studies student. “My coworkers have been working on it for years.”
Niet has been working at Haven since 2022 and has watched the process of Haven Connect develop since he started work.
Haven Connect has been used for board meetings and podcasters since its soft launch in September. Ben Kissner, the events and programming co-ordinator for Haven, noted its ability to adapt to students’ needs.
“I feel like we’re going to have to be flexible with how we go forward,” Kissner said. “We’ll have to assess how students are using it and what their needs are.”
Each of the spaces can be rented for full days or half days, with student pricing set at about 60 per cent lower than regular pricing to make the spaces more “approachable” for students said Prentice.
For a student to rent the Seneca Room, per chair, it costs $10 for half the day and $15 for the full day.
To rent the Sunnyside suite, it costs $75 for half the day and $125 for the full day for a student.
To rent the Creator’s Studio, per hour, it costs $40 as a student.
Godfrey Tse, a fourth-year architecture student at Carleton, said he studies in Haven’s cafe space downstairs often. He said the lower student pricing makes the spaces accessible.
Prentice said he used his experience living in Boston as his inspiration for the space, hoping to bring the “lively” and “energetic” style he saw in their popular coworking spaces to Haven Connect.
“We’re here and it’s available,” Prentice said. “That’s the key for us.”
“I’m interested to see what the future holds for the space,” Kissner added.
Featured image by Sarah Yule/The Charlatan.
