The Brickyard Collaborative — Local services in Lynn

Tl;dr: if you already have an art/maker business that turns a profit and need space to expand or streamline, and you have your own hand tools, this is for you. If you are just an amateur with a tiny living space who needs room for a hobby, doesn't stock their own personal hobby tools, and has tight finances, look elsewhere.

Longer explanation: Not sure if they're still open, but they're a place with great ambitions that outran their ability to keep up with those ambitions. They have a truly cool amount of heavy equipment, including a full wood and machine shop, but small tools are disorganized and hard to find. They insist you bring your own hand tools and such -- they seem confused when asked if they have basic things like hand drills and a full set of allen wrenches. They offer studio space, which so few makerspaces actually do, but they raised rates recently to the point where it's honestly not affordable for people whose art isn't already a side hustle. Like most makerspaces, they insist on good and proper training for safety on the machines, but finding anyone to actually teach you how to use them takes a long time because they have almost no permanent staff and their volunteers are often not around. They eliminated their 24 hour status some time ago, because instead of putting in automated locks to prevent user error in locking their doors, they insisted that users never make any mistakes. So you now have to keep daytime hours or else risk having your night access revoked due to one tired night's mistake. The members themselves are friendly and welcoming but almost never around at the same time; when I was there, the leadership was grumpy once you were established and had opinions about the space. I think that last part might have changed lately, though.

Brickyard was so close to being amazing, but at this rate, I'm not sure they can both keep members (due to costs and slow training) and stay in business (due to their high rent which drives the aforementioned costs). I'm guessing their best hope will be to get a surge of established artists to support their rent.

My review boils down to 5* potential, with drawbacks that put it solidly mid for me. I hope they hang in there and make it work out. There's just so...

I found this Makerspace last year and joined the same day I took the tour. It’s 10,000 sq feet and they have plenty of tools and equipment. Including a wood-shop , laser printers, 3D lab, textile space and more, you really have to take a tour to see everything. The members are all helpful and friendly. If you need space to DIY, create or build something this is the spot. The other nice thing is they are always trying to improve and expand on what is...

Undoubtedly, the best-equipped maker space I've ever encountered. This isn't just a space with a couple computers and some 3D printers (although that is available), there are fully-equipped and separated wood shop, metal shop, rapid prototyping area, fabric/textiles lab, electronics lab, etc.

All the other members have been friendly and helpful with onboarding, and the ability to have my own work and storage space within...