Innovation Districts

Innovation districts and anchor institutions—like hospitals, universities, and technology hubs—are celebrated for their ability to drive economic growth and employment opportunities. But the benefits often fail to reach the very neighborhoods they are built in. As CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Matt Enstice took a different approach. Under Matt’s leadership, BNMC has supported entrepreneurship training programs and mentorship for community members, creation of a community garden, bringing together diverse groups to explore transportation solutions, and more. Fostering participation and collaboration among neighborhood leaders, foundations, and other organizations ensures that the interests of Buffalo residents are represented. Together, these groups are creating a new model for re-energizing Buffalo—a model that has applications across the United States and around the world. City Forward explains how BNMC works to promote a shared goal of equity among companies and institutions with often opposing motivations and intentions. When money or time is scarce, how can equitable community building remain a common priority? When interests conflict, and an institution’s expansion depends upon parking or development that would infringe upon public space, how can the decision-making process maintain trust and collaboration? Offering a candid look at BNMC’s setbacks and successes, along with efforts from other institutions nationwide, Enstice shares twelve strategies that innovation districts can harness to weave equity into their core work. From actively creating opportunities to listen to the community, to navigating compromise, to recruiting new partners, the book reveals unique opportunities available to create decisive, large-scale change. Critically, Enstice also offers insight about how innovation districts can speak about equity in an inclusive manner and keep underrepresented and historically excluded voices at the decision-making table. Accessible, engaging, and packed with fresh ideas applicable to any city, this book is an invaluable resource. Institutional leadership, business owners, and professionals hoping to make equitable change within their companies and organizations will find experienced direction here. City Forward is a refreshing look at the brighter, more equitable futures that we can create through thoughtful and strategic collaboration—moving forward, together.

"This book draws on case studies that explore the role that technological innovation, guided by entrepreneurialism in higher education, can have on economic development and urban change. This framework of sociological analysis, with illustrative cases of successes and failures, provides insights into the transformational power of higher education in the built environment. The book's target audience includes university administrators, board members and regents, local and state government officials, and entrepreneurs"--

Innovation districts are physical spaces that serve to strengthen the foundations and institutions of an innovation ecosystem. The design, implementation, and management of formalized innovation districts is a new practice area. Research draws upon the experience of concentrated areas of innovation that occurred organically, such as Boston’s Route 128, as well as intentional projects to bring together innovators in large science and technology parks, such as North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Existing research focuses on how to define and design innovation districts and evaluate their impact, as well as general policy considerations. In this paper, we review the definitions and benefits of an innovation district, reviewing the existing empirical research on their impacts. We then propose a series of questions to guide practitioners in addressing the economic, physical, social, and governance elements of an innovation district. Finally, we outline some of the challenges in creating an innovation district and ways to measure progress, to allow practitioners to get ahead of potential issues in the future. This paper is intended to help policymakers and practitioners working in innovation and economic development translate the concepts of innovation ecosystems into actionable next steps for planning innovation districts in their communities.

As universities transform cities with their innovation districts, what works in these new public-private partnerships? In recent years, the successful revitalization of urban areas has turned them into magnets for those looking for opportunities in a fast-paced and rapidly unfolding technology-based economy. After the economic crisis of 2008, many colleges and universities attempted to generate alternative sources of revenue and pursued aggressive economic development strategies. Some universities even began to actively invest resources in the rebirth (and rebranding) of urban cores, encouraging the development of entrepreneurial, technology-oriented innovation districts. In Anchoring Innovation Districts, Costas Spirou explains that these districts have emerged as geographic clusters of technology startups, business incubators, and accelerators. They aim to take advantage of intellectual capital, commercialize knowledge, and give their associated institutions a way to enter into the market. The outcome of robust private-public partnerships and complex real estate strategies, these initiatives also complement other urban revitalization efforts and reshape the socioeconomic makeup of city neighborhoods. Presenting readers with six case studies that explore the role of technological innovation, Spirou argues that higher education–anchored innovation districts can make significant contributions to economic expansion, job growth, and the institutions that guide their development. He also points out that these districts nonetheless raise questions about the impact of the Ivory Tower on the urban environment. Spirou focuses on Midtown Atlanta's Tech Square (Georgia Tech), Cambridge's Kendall Square (MIT), Philadelphia's University City (the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and the University of the Sciences), the PHX Core (Arizona State University), and the role that the University of West Florida in Pensacola and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga play in developing innovation ecosystems. Anchoring Innovation Districts provides unique insight into the transformative opportunities offered and the challenges faced by higher education in the built environment. University administrators, board members, policy makers, and scholars will find Spirou's analysis thought-provoking and helpful.

The world is not flat; cities are more important than ever before. We observe an increased competition between cities to attract, create, and retain talents and innovative companies. For urban leaders, the capacity to innovate is central to urban competitiveness. One of the recent trends in local economic development is the concept of innovation districts. The toolkit analyzes the re-emergence of downtown areas, the importance of innovation for urban competitiveness, the recipe for designing a successful innovation district, and provides an innovation district's framework - urban, productive, collaborative, and creative - to accelerate cities' innovative capacity. With case-studies from 22@ Barcelona, Boston's Innovation District, and one-north Singapore, the book will give clear guidelines to urban leaders on how to activate a successful innovative ecosystem. The book will be of interest for urban planners, local development agencies, urban policymakers, urban theorists, and anyone with a strong desire to make cities more innovative and more interesting.

This book aims to fill the knowledge gap on how to plan, develop and manage innovation districts that are competitive in terms of both productivity and quality of living, justifying the massive investment put into place and at the same time doing both in a delicate and harmonious way. There is a need for smart urban land use that is wired with both hard infrastructures (e.g., telecommunication and transport) and soft infrastructures (e.g., diversity and tolerance). The reader learns this knowledge through conceptual expansions for key insights, frameworks for potential and performance assessment and best practices for global innovation districts. The authors begin innovation district planning with the role and effectiveness of planning a branding in the development of innovation districts. The next key topic of place making is recognised as a key strategy for supporting knowledge generation and innovation activities in the contemporary innovation districts. Another important topic is place quality where the reader learns to identify and classify indicators of place quality by studying global innovation districts best practices. The reader also expands their understanding on the classification of innovation districts based on their key characteristics through a methodological approach. The book concludes with district smartness studied through the socio-cultural role played by anchor universities in facilitating place making in innovation districts. Smart campuses, enabled by digital transformation opportunities in higher education, are seen as a miniature replica of smart cities and serve as living labs for smart technology. The book serves as a repository for scholars, researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students as it communicates the complex innovation district phenomenon in an easy-to-digest form by providing both the big picture view and specifics of each component of that view.

Across the US, cities and metropolitan areas are facing huge economic and competitive challenges that Washington won't, or can't, solve. The good news is that networks of metropolitan leaders – mayors, business and labor leaders, educators, and philanthropists – are stepping up and powering the nation forward. These state and local leaders are doing the hard work to grow more jobs and make their communities more prosperous, and they're investing in infrastructure, making manufacturing a priority, and equipping workers with the skills they need. In The Metropolitan Revolution, Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley highlight success stories and the people behind them. · New York City: Efforts are under way to diversify the city's vast economy · Portland: Is selling the "sustainability" solutions it has perfected to other cities around the world · Northeast Ohio: Groups are using industrial-age skills to invent new twenty-first-century materials, tools, and processes · Houston: Modern settlement house helps immigrants climb the employment ladder · Miami: Innovators are forging strong ties with Brazil and other nations · Denver and Los Angeles: Leaders are breaking political barriers and building world-class metropolises · Boston and Detroit: Innovation districts are hatching ideas to power these economies for the next century The lessons in this book can help other cities meet their challenges. Change is happening, and every community in the country can benefit. Change happens where we live, and if leaders won't do it, citizens should demand it. The Metropolitan Revolution was the 2013 Foreword Reviews Bronze winner for Political Science.

Innovation districts and anchor institutions--like hospitals and universities--drive economic growth. But the benefits often fail to reach the very neighborhoods they are built in. As CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC), Matt Enstice fosters a different, collaborative approach. City Forward explains how BNMC promotes a shared goal of equity among companies and institutions with diverse motivations. Offering a candid look at BNMC's setbacks and successes, along with efforts from other institutions nationwide, Enstice shares twelve strategies that innovation districts can harness to weave equity into their core work. Institutional leadership, business owners, and professionals will find experienced direction here. City Forward is a refreshing look at the brighter futures that we can create through thoughtful collaboration--moving forward, together.