As profiled this week, there are workplace-community centers for creatives and high-tech entrepreneurs, but what about arts groups?

That’s why Flashpoint (a fitting name) in Washington DC was created.

Like C3 and ATI, Flashpoint was created as a physical place and implementation of a larger organization’s vision, in this case, DC’s Cultural Development Corporation (CuDC), a nonprofit dedicated to developing affordable spaces for artists and cultural organizations.  With a contemporary art

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To be more specific, how can a city and university collaborate to create a robust local economy?

The ATI (Austin Technology Center), the ‘real world implementation’ program of IC2 (Innovation, Creativity & Capital), a think tank founded at the University of Austin in 1977.  IC2 is focused on innovative science and technology economic development that allows “communities (and nations) to grow and prosper in a sustainable manner that promotes an improved quality of life”.  If only every

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What good is a great theater or hall without events worth going to?  In the last of our three-part profile of C3 in Richmond, here’s a look at what goes on in one of the coolest destinations around.

Breakfast Club - Each month this morning meeting helps provide direction on how business and human resource leaders can instill more creativity in their own people.  Recent topics ranged from how creativity can assist problem solving to communications.

C3 Ed - These educational sessions feature

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Just as Richard Florida’s research shows jobs follow talent, C3 (Creative Change Center), the only workplace/living room for the creative/entrepreneurial community of its kind (profiled yesterday) would not have happened without talent.

The initial talent in C3’s case is Bob Mooney, chairman of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, and Andy Stefanovich, ‘In Charge of What’s Next’ at Play, an award-winning local creative consulting firm and a model of innovation themselves.

Business

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Followers of this website know that we focus on neighborhoods and districts that attract the creative class, but if there ever was an example of a single venue that does so, it’s C3 (the Creative Change Center) and there’s really nothing like it anywhere.

Surprise, it’s not in Manhattan or Austin, but in Richmond, VA, which should be encouraging to cities that aren’t Manhattan or Austin.  Richmond, however, is a growing mecca of creativity itself.

What is C3?  As they say, it’s a “community

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In this elevation there are six 18th century buildings designated as City, State and Federal historical landmarks, as well as three brand new buildings.  It’s one of the best examples of mixing historic with contemporary that I’ve seen.

While it may not be all too difficult to pick them out, it’s not like the three new buildings stand out either, helping dispel the belief that anything new is automatically going to destroy the long-time neighborhood character.  In fact, a masterful blending

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Well, outside of the fact that it’s hardly affordable, the renovated/new Historic Front Street in Seaport North (near the Brooklyn Bridge) in Manhattan is the best creative class development among the seventeen CNU Charter Awards profiled yesterday.

Eleven 18th century buildings plus three brand new buildings host 96 residential apartments for rent from 600 s.f. to 1400 s.f., plus thirteen retail spaces on the ground floor.  The project encompasses the entire block on either side of Front

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If you’re wondering what the best new models for placemaking are each year, it’s wise to keep tabs on the CNU’s (Congress for the New Urbanism) annual

announcement of its Charter Award winners.

Out of 160 entries, here are the 17 they chose, and I’ll profile my favorite over the next couple of days.  Each year the winners are increasingly urban, which is refreshing over past selections that were largely greenfield (ie ‘well-designed sprawl’)

Block, Street, and Building
The Cap at Union

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London’s Telegraph article, The fond farewells to four wheels, says it all here:

“Ms Cameron and Ms Jones are part of a new generation of homeowners being lured away from their cars. It’s a fast-growing trend. There are already quite a few developments - mostly urban new-builds - that aim to diminish car use among their residents, if not to phase it out entirely.“

One of the developments profiled is Carlton Drive, a 22-unit downtown green building. (pictured)  Is there a market?  The place

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The creatives in Tampa Bay, FL knew they were important to their city, they just didn’t know how to communicate that… until Richard Florida, author of the best-seller Rise of the Creative Class, presented to 500 of them in April 2003.

Later that year, CreativeTampaBay was founded, a nonprofit “dedicated to connecting and energizing the community’s assets to cultivate an environment that encourages innovation, expands the economy and is a magnet for creative people.“

Their principles include:

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