The Maker Revolution by Mark R. Hatch

Author:Mark R. Hatch
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781119428756
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2017-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

JBG Smith (formerly Vernado), one of the largest real estate developers in the United States, has begun to successfully reposition its mega-project and crown jewel, Crystal City, outside Washington, DC, as an innovation district. Vernado helped attract TechShop to the area and also helped put in a software accelerator and coworking space across the street. Just these two moves started making Crystal City more interesting to startups. It has everything going for it: nearby access to subways, clubs, restaurants, proximity to the airport, and quick access to central DC via the subway system. Just a couple years earlier, Vernado was sitting on millions of square feet of vacant space from government agencies choosing to relocate.

This is one of the greatest opportunities available to this generation of city planners. As we are moving through this amazing revolution of innovation and creativity, cities need the space, programming, buildings, transportation, inspiration, vibrancy, proximity, density, and design to maximize the opportunity. Cities need the most creative, knowledgeable, brilliant, hardworking, insightful, thoughtful, artistic people to be in close proximity, living, working, learning, growing, and going through life together to build a better future. There is no better place to do this than in a well-thought-out innovation district.

One of the keys to driving these districts is to make them economically viable in the long-term to achieve the breadth of residence and activity we want to see these locations. This means we need to preserve these innovation districts' diversity by saving space for art, low-income housing, and light manufacturing. There are some great projects that have been done around the country and around the world that are helping to create and develop innovation districts while preserving space for maker businesses and art. The Urban Manufacturing Alliance (http://www.urbanmfg.org/) is a US-based nonprofit focused on helping to develop manufacturing in cities. They have chapters all across the United States now. They are working with various communities to develop creative uses of zoning, and are working closely with developers, city planners, and community members to creatively meet the current and future needs of the community, and to keep the projects economically viable. Adam Friedman, director of the Pratt Center of Community Development at Pratt Institute (one of the premier US design schools) in New York City, has pulled together a number of resources, projects, and symposia that can help cities sort through how to get started and how to leverage this movement.

These innovation districts can become one of the transformative engines in urban rejuvenation. This explicitly calls for mixed-use projects that have a different flavor than what many people imagine. This particularly includes light manufacturing. It initially may feel odd to be thinking about manufacturing in cities again. But because of the automation, sustainability, local products, local design, sourcing, and other trends that are working in our favor, it makes a lot of sense to support local light manufacturing. That is why the Urban Manufacturing Alliance is getting so much traction.

Also, it turns out density solves a lot of economic viability issues, but zoning laws often work against density.

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