A little over a year after leaving, I came back to DTLA. Bali did what it was supposed to do — I paid off the high-interest loan, recalibrated my sense of what I need to be happy, and came home with a completely different perspective on the city I've loved for 20 years.
But I came back as a digital nomad who'd spent a year working from some of the best co-working spaces in Asia, so I wasn't about to go back to working from home. I needed to find the best place in DTLA.
The answer is WeWork? Industrious? Cross Campus? None of the above.
The best co-working space in Downtown Los Angeles that almost nobody knows about is The Downtown Independent — a 1926 movie theater on Hill Street that has been converted into a creative workspace. Original plaster ceilings, art deco details, high-speed internet, and a community of filmmakers, writers, and designers who feel like they're working in a set piece from another era.
The membership is affordable, the coffee is excellent, and on some days they still screen films in the original theater downstairs. It's the DTLA version of Dojo Bali — a place with a soul, not just a floorplan.
If you're a creative professional working in Downtown Los Angeles and you haven't been, go. You can thank me later.