I tried the new Deck 4. I may have accidentally moved in.
I Gave It a Go: The Review | 5 min read
By: Natasha Fracchiolla, WeWork Inside Correspondent
Deck 4 at WeWork 155 West Street, Sandton. Photograph by WeWork.
They call it Deck 4. No, it's not the latest bougie cocktail.
It's also not Google circa 2012, with cyan beanbags, indoor slides or any desperate attempts to convince adults that an office is a playground. This is the 'real' Deck 4, where adults come to work, connect, eat damn good pizza, watch a killer Joburg sunset and drink too much coffee. And I got to be this kind of adult for a day.
WeWork 155 West, in Sandton, Johannesburg, is home to the new Deck 4: a co-working and private office space floor, dedicated to one of the smartest glow-ups for hard-working 'adults' this side of the southern hemisphere.
First, let me say:
This is not just any office pimp-out, where we move a pot plant, throw cushions in a corner and flop a chop on a Friday. Nope. This, my dear friends, is a proper four-month refresh, rethink and refurbishment brought to life by some of the best minds in the business.
We're talking an eclectic mix of distressed leather chairs, vibing with very cool striped fabrics, backdropped by primary colour moods of blues and reds, splashes of neutral beiges and browns, complemented by streams of natural light (for the code vampires), all playlisted with the humdrum of human connection, and deals being made in the coffee station line! Yip, that level up, and an intentional one.
Can an office floor make you reconsider your relationship with your actual desk? Apparently, yes.
Deck 4 started out as a pretty regular office floor: some plants, a pantry, one over-choked coffee machine hiding down the corridor, a large, proverbial blue couch that flew in direct from 2022, and loads of WeWork members scurrying past each other, to and from their private offices.
I, thankfully, got to experience none of that. Instead, I witnessed only what seemed to me like a melting pot of Joburg's nomads, founders, movers and shakers on their laptops, connecting in the coffee queue, laughing around tables, and shaking hands like long-lost friends. Everyone's hustling hard but having the time of their lives at 11am on a random Thursday. How?
First impressions: someone understood the assignment
The thinking behind the refurb was obviously well thought through. It's warm. It's social. It feels all grown-up. Also, there's a classy-cool coffee station in the house with a machine that's like a Ferrari in pole position by 8am. Jump to the coffee part.
In front of me, a swanky outdoor terrace. All around me, touchdown pockets with mix-and-match chairs and tables. Spaces to sit, talk, eat, meet, work, and stare at the Sandton skyline. All while getting the work done.
Touchdown pockets, with the terrace just through the glass doors.
And then there's the terrace.
I walked through the wide glass doors and there I was, in my own episode of The Parisian Agency. Except nobody here was trying to sell me a €14-million château.
The skyline opens up around you like a Matrix rotational pan, and Joburg's sunset is that one treasure ball everyone is holding out for, while they're supposedly working later to 'miss the traffic'.
Coffee, sunshine and a good laugh on the terrace.
I heard corporate banter, inside jokes and colleagues sharing options for their upcoming corporate event, which answered some key questions for me too:
- Can I host an event on the WeWork Deck 4 Terrace? Yes, you can host an event here.
- Can I get a drink after work on Deck 4? Yes, there is alcohol available.
- Can I propose on Deck 4? No, please don't.
When there's a strange couch in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call?
Claire D'Adorante. That's who. Director of Paragon Interface South Africa, and WeWork South Africa's interior style queen, who turned WeWork's brief into a bounty hall of connection and casual intent. Sans blue couch.
With considered details that make the space feel polished but accessible, Claire's vision was to keep WeWork Members feeling relaxed and at home whilst at work. The new space came to life for people to enjoy the right mix of comfort and technology, and the pizza, let's be honest. Jump to the pizza part.
Claire tells me that a successful workspace needs to be 'intuitive and easy, with intentional touchdown areas'. With 155 West Street growing, and now home to 184 WeWork member companies, the need to create more room for humans to connect, and to do the things humans do between all the emailing, Zooming and spreadsheeting, is no longer a nice-to-have in a flexible workspace. It's non-negotiable.
Deck 4 now sports those exact intentions, with fixed pause areas to the edges for longer touchdowns, while seating along the atrium edges creates a "walk, talk and touch down" space, all linked to the building's main circulation corridors.
The result? The refreshed Deck 4 feels less 'office breakout area' and more 'super cool den that just happens to allow laptops' (and plug points and speedy Wi-Fi and pizza orders and premium coffee and, and, and…).
The banquette seat: Claire D'Adorante's first choice.
The Good. The Not So Good. And a Barista who knows his beans.
Since every respectable blog review needs an honest snapshot of the good, the bad, and how it all ended, you'd do well to take some crib notes below for your next visit to WeWork 155 West Street, in Sandton.
The good stuff
- The Central Pause Area: Chairs with bold textures and colours that create a vibrant, energetic space. You'll feel right at home on the homey baseball-glove leathers, while the rattan and velvet with timber seats open their arms to you like the business mentor you never had.
- The Banquette Seat: Mm mm… the one right near the window. Mentioned here just because it's cool, and also, it's Claire D'Adorante's first choice, so we love it too.
- The Pizza: For research purposes, obviously, I tried three: Chicken & Feta, Ham & Mushroom and Margherita. Expect Nonna's homemade dough and a far-from-shy dose of yum toppings. All three delivered on point. And so did Rafael, straight to my table on Deck 4, from The Work Kitchen. I used their very fancy app to order my lunch. Easy and impressive, I'd say, even for a Gen-X.
- The Coffee: I tried a cortado from the new coffee bar, prepared by Alec the Barista using the Honduras Medium Roast bean. I can confirm: proper coffee. Smooth, rich and capable of restoring faith after a 9am meeting.
- The Coffee Station: Honestly, the coffee station on Deck 4 deserves its own blog, which is why we wrote about it. What I will say here is that this Carimali beauty is opening up its taps like nobody's business. A proper espresso machine that keeps up with every cortado and flat white in the house. And trust me, that's a ton load. Read our coffee review.
- The Human Connection Factor: This is perhaps the biggest win. Deck 4 has been designed around the WeWork community; around eye contact; around people bumping into people. Full disclosure: team lunches are now a thing on Deck 4. Nobody's secretly eyeing out your smashed avo-salami sandwich anymore, because everyone's actually talking to each other!
Update: Since this review, coffee across WeWork South Africa has had an upgrade, with 15 new Carimali machines serving Kimbo beans. Read how it went in Bean There, Tried That.
The human connection factor, in action.
The not-so-good stuff
- The coffee bar closes at 16:00. Boohoo. This feels unnecessarily personal when you're a 16:07 coffee person.
- You might land up staring too long at the skyline, that is, and feel no need whatsoever to return to your flexible desk.
- Since Alec-arimali came on the scene (Alec + Carimali), the original coffee machine is not so popular anymore. But she still has her old faithfuls. Bless.
- Team envy might happen. If you're travelling solo (WeWork All Access Members, I'm looking at you!), you may suffer a slight bout of team envy when the happy employees at table 6 are selfie-ing and eating lunch together (true story, friend!).
- And the not-so-GOAT blue couch? Gone. Vanished. It's apparently now living in the storeroom, poor guy. Visiting hours are between 2pm and 3pm (and for everyone's sake, don't mention the new fancy chairs!).
The office opinion: we asked Alec.
Of course we did! WeWork's coffee barista of three years.
What do you love most about WeWork's Deck 4?
The whole vibe. It feels fresh, modern and really welcoming.
Best part of your day?
Seeing members enjoying themselves and spending more time here. Sometimes you'll see members having a conversation, laughing together or just taking a moment to enjoy the space.
One challenge on the new deck?
Our coffee orders come in pretty fast (laughs, nervously!) so you definitely have to stay switched on. But me and Carimali, we've got it covered!
Be honest, have you ever sat on one of the new swanky chairs?
Of course! Very cool, and super comfy too. Definitely an upgrade from the old setup!
The final verdict
WeWork Deck 4 is a breath of fresh air. It won't answer your emails. It can't fix your pitch deck. And it will never, ever tell Mpho she has toilet paper stuck to her heel. But Deck 4 does something arguably more useful: it gives the working day somewhere to breathe. Somewhere to become. Somewhere to engage. And mostly, somewhere to belong.
Would I give it a go again? I'm actually still here (sips cortado number 4).
