Arizona State University is looking to change that in a grand way with their Next American University plan to accommodate 90,000 students via two new urban campuses, one north of Phoenix, one in its downtown. Then there’s ASU’s take on what university research buildings should be, a microcosm of University of South Carolina’s Innovista research village.

Skysong, aka the ASU-Scottsdale Center for Innovation, is a 37-acre, Posted by Neil Takemoto in • University Towns | (0) Comments | (0) Trackbacks | Link |

Should rural universities even think about going urban?  In our customer-driven economy based on you, that question may be best answered by the students themselves, such as Cleo Szmygiel, a University of Connecticut freshman, “This would make it easier for them to attract students.”

That’s a quote from a NY Times article on how students who want a more urban vibe when going to a university ‘in the middle of nowhere’ are finally getting what they want. Just listen to these University

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Many of us enjoy that college town feel of a pedestrian-oriented urban fabric, indie hang-outs and diversity mixed with enlightened conversation. Which cities do well in this regard, which don’t, and why?

Creative class economist Richard Florida provides some answers with his colleagues in their recently published, The University and the Creative Economy.

As far as statistics and rankings, the study introduces two new ones:
Brain Drain/Gain Index (BDGI) - measuring and ranking cities by

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Pennsylvania hasn’t exactly been at the top of the list in states that attract knowledge workers. However, Collegia, which works with colleges and communities to attract and retain top student talent, is helping them change that.

Collegia president Todd Hoffman, interviewed at Smart City, puts it in perspective, “Quality of life is more important now than ever.  It’s really the jobs that are migrating to where the students want to be - they seem to have the upper hand in most places.”

One

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So why is the University of South Carolina’s Innovista (profiled yesterday) worthy of proclaiming itself as “the model for the new research campus of the next 100 years”?…

...When’s the last time you’ve seen a research “park” with marketing like this - “Imagine your home is a meandering stroll from your office. Along the way you pass delightful distractions, quaint bistros, art galleries, and unique shops. Just a few more steps and you’re on a tree lined riverfront parkway, or watching a

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We’re all familiar with university research parks - they look just like suburban office parks, and yes, prospective workers avoid choosing such places (no one lives there) because they’re not about to sacrifice two hours of their daily life to commuting, much less the additional time it takes to get to any form of authentic entertainment.

Well, that was in the days of the industrial economy, and in the knowledge economy we’ll start to see places like the University of South Carolina’s

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Of the accepted applicants to the University of Connecticut each year, about two-thirds decide to go elsewhere. The #1 reason, based on annual surveys?  Lack of a college town.

So, the Town of Mansfield CT, the University, and a visionary real estate developer, Leyland Alliance, partnered to establish the Mansfield Downtown Partnership to build… a college town center.  And a pretty cool one at that.

Next year, the $165 million Storrs Center will commence, with 200,000 s.f. of retail and

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Universities grow the economy, but they also advance change for a higher quality of life and health.

It’s well documented that universities are talent and economic engines for cities - the economic impact of ‘higher education’ is $1.2 trillion per year, 10% of the U.S. economy. 20 million Americans either work for or attend an institution of higher education - 1 out of every 15 people. In Canada, 35% of its total R&D ($9 billion) was done by universities.

However, universities and colleges

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If tech expert Paul Graham is right, all you need to build the next Silicon Valley is $600M to spend on professors to attract the talent, and quality neighborhoods to attract the investors.  In his words:

“I think you only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub: rich people and nerds. The exciting thing is, all you need are the people. If you could attract a critical mass of nerds and investors to live somewhere, you could reproduce Silicon Valley. What nerds like is other

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While yesterday’s entry presented national evidence of the downtown movement, what about local evidence?  Syracuse, New York is one of many small cities investing in downtowns as they transition from a manufacturing economy to an information-based one.

Syracuse’s success story simplified:

Step One:  Designate a depressed warehouse (ie manufacturing) district, Armory Square as a historic (and very affordable) neighborhood, thus encouraging artists and entrepreneurs to settle there.  Sound

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What to do with a desolate, unsafe, blighted industrial district of empty warehouses…

Business leaders in Tacoma knew exactly what to do - transform it into a university village.
Beginning in 1986 using their own private resources, they worked tirelessly to convince state and local officials and University of Washington administrators that this was the perfect site for a new university.
Eleven years later the University of Washington-Tacoma was established on the site.

The 46-acre campus

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A University Business Magazine article on retail states that young people spent $169 billion in 2004 - which is why Universities are taking larger roles in the retail surrounding their campuses.  The article then says that creating that right retail mix to cater to this market is extremely difficult for current administrations to figure out.  Based on the number of suburban, chain-dependent models they subsequently list, I’d say they’re right.  It doesn’t look like they consulted the students

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What good is a college town if the students leave right after graduating?  Quality of life and affordability are major factors.  Jobs is another, and here’s how the University of Georgia (UGA) is establishing an entrepreneurial template for that.

The Athens New Media Synergy Center provides office space and business opportunities to accelerate digital media, wireless and software development companies. It is funded by The UGA Research Foundation as part of the university’s commitment to

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Here’s yet further research that college towns are key centers for economic development, in the following AP article: College towns make the grade with entrepreneurs.

The standard reasons why college towns are attractive to entrepreneurs:
- A lower cost of living/working in small college towns than in big cities
- Educated young workers without salary demands, sometimes enough to compete with outsourcing (ie home-shoring)
- High quality of life, fueled by vibrant nightlife, recreation

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Universities are starting to respond to the long-time reality that people simply don’t enjoy working (or are as productive) in the typical isolated campus research park devoid of human scale or residential, retail and entertainment vitality.

Johns Hopkins University is one of them, with their 80-acre Science + Technology Park adjacent to their medical complex. Notice how it continues the existing walkable urban fabric around it.  That’s the Johns Hopkins medical complex at the bottom of the

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Seeking to grow, but with no room to do so, Columbia University worked with New York City to rezone a nearby low-density industrial area (warehouses, auto service stations) to transform it into a mixed-use urban village with contemporary classroom/office space, housing, restaurants and retail (see before and after image.) The 18-acre site will allow the university to grow by a whopping 50%.

To get an idea of how efficient this vision is, compare these 18 acres dedicated to at least 10,000

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The most vibrant, thriving town centers and main streets occur near universities, from Pearl Street in Boulder near the Univ. of Colorado to Main Street in Charlottesville near the Univ. of Virginia.  The list is endless.  Why?  Because there’s no better population for live music, indie restaurants and 24/7 nightlife than students and recent graduates.

So maybe Arizona State University realizes this well enough to build their own town center (or two), as pictured on the right side of the

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In continuation of yesterday’s entry on built examples of the ‘next university’, here’s one that’s a sign of where things are going, this one at Ohio State University in Columbus.

South Campus Gateway is a $150M four-block mixed-use urban village located between the University and one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, with 30+ retail shops, university office space, multiplex cinema and nearly 200 rental apartments. 2-bedroom ‘loft apartments’ with great views and 10-ft. ceilings will rent

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In 2003 I presented a vision for how contemporary universities will blend seamlessly into neighborhoods and cities, via articles on site plans and imagery.  Two years later, it’s nice to be able to show photos of built projects instead.

This photo is not of a complex for office workers, but the University of Pennsylvania’s Sansom Common, designed to provide a supermarket, entertainment (theaters and restaurants), shopping and public safety for its students, and a hotel for university

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Ann Arbor is the final stop in the CoolTown five-city tour, and while it integrates not one, but two main streets into the University of Michigan, it’s creative edge appears to be giving way to the words ‘trendy, swanky, upper class, pride, and bourgeois’, as spoken by the locally concerned who have taken an active interest in the future of the city, as well as student reviews, and would you believe an entire web site?

Ann Arbor has a lot of creative, inspired people (like Jim, Patricia,

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...even though the educational talent is similar?

Because they can.

Students are people too, and they’d much rather be in a great place to live.  The same goes for faculty, which explains why the universities in the towns that are rated highest by students/faculty as far as quality of life, entertainment and recreation are often the highest in tuition.  Then of course, because only those who can afford that hike in tuition can attend, they’re the ones who can afford the hike in rents that

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If it wasn’t for the unrelenting, frigid winters, Burlington would be too popular for its own good.

We met with Erik, Peter, Elizabeth, Walker, John, Michele and James, and you can read about their thoughts throughout the next few blogs.  One things that stood out was that they were unanimous in saying that living in Burlington is a great place to meet people (and interesting ones at that) - if you meet one person, you’ll meet dozens more, and dozens of their friends.  I ran into three

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So of course, tonight we asked the University of Georgia students, especially the ones closest in association to the creative class…

The downtown is centralized, it has a sense of place, it’s different, it’s walkable, it has arty music scenes, a great country scene, bikes everywhere, it has a dense feel, it has people everywhere, the aesthetics are beautiful, it has diversity, a transient population, there’s a wide variety of live music throughout, it’s a liberal island, the streets and

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Madison, Wisconsin regularly tops the Best Places to Live list, and even Forbes’s Best Places For Business.

However, the one thing that’s most apparent when experiencing Madison is that fact that pedestrians, or people rather, take priority over anything else.  For instance:

- The main street, State Street, is only 24 feet wide, and closed to only buses, delivery trucks and taxis.  What you see at night however, is people jogging, walking and bicycling, since the buses are few and far

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The live music hangout in Cambridge, MA is in Central Square, the place to be for MIT students.  It also has one of the most popular coffee houses (1369 Coffee House), co-op markets and Economy Hardware - where Target meets Ikea meets Home Depot in a small package on your neighborhood main street.

Unfortunately, the main street here is long and continuous, 50’ wide vs. the 36’ wide streets in Harvard Square, meaning the place feels more like pedestrians are secondary to a five-lane street

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