Three years ago, the Design Tinkering Club at NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering launched a program called My Vibrant Campus, which was intended to get students to design spaces and services around the school’s campus in Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center. One of the results was The Greenhouse, a collaborative workspace, meeting space, hangout space, networking space, whatever-students-want-to-use-it-for space that opened in January 2013 in the basement of NYU-Poly’s Jacobs Building.

The Greenhouse hosts everything from formal workshops and impromptu brainstorming sessions to cultural events and speakers on entrepreneurship. “It is a space to foster innovation, collaboration, and cross-pollination of talents across the NYU community,” according to The Greenhouse’s website, “and will support the growing entrepreneurial spirit of NYU students, and create opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration with the students of NYU’s 15 other schools, colleges, and institutes.”