Innovista

[krazeeboi]

Here's a great article from BusinessWeek magazine about the new wave of urban research parks around the world.

Say "science park" to most Americans and they probably will think of beautifully landscaped campuses of low-rise buildings on the outskirts of a city, where researchers commute to their cubicles each morning and fight the evening traffic to return home. For 50 years the prototype was Research Triangle Park—an 11-sq.-mile district snuggled into the piney hills outside of Durham, N.C., with such multinational tenants as IBM (IBM) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

No longer. Today's high-tech meccas are being constructed deep inside major cities. Michael Joroff, an urban-planning guru at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dubs them "new century cities." Their goal, says Joroff, an adviser to projects in South Korea, Britain, Sweden, and Abu Dhabi, is to "kick-start high-priority industries with new spaces where companies and universities can work together and develop the next generation of workers."

This should bode well for Innovista, if they can ever get back on track.

[CorgiMatt]

They're working daily on the lot at Blossom and Assembly. They have it all graded. They've taken the chain link fencing down, though. Parts of that article don't bode well for research parks, but if USC essentially makes the Innovista area the place for most of its future buildings, things should work out.

[burbman08]

They're working daily on the lot at Blossom and Assembly. They have it all graded. They've taken the chain link fencing down, though. Parts of that article don't bode well for research parks, but if USC essentially makes the Innovista area the place for most of its future buildings, things should work out.

It looks like that they just brought in some top soil and are cleaning the lot up so that it looks better then what it has been for the last 2 years. When i passed it today the last of the grading equipment was getting packed up on trucks. I also noticed they are finally putting in the portions of sidewalk that have been missing there since they started this endeavor.

[BrasilnSC]

I noticed the same thing. Fence has been taken down, dirt has been graded, and there is new sidewalk along Assembly in front of the lot. I assume the next step is seeding the area. This is very disappointing.

[CorgiMatt]

I drove home that way today, and actually there was still a small bulldozer sitting in the middle of the newly graded area; and fence posts are up, waiting on the chain link part to arrive, I guess.

[CorgiMatt]

A new chain link fence is up now around the Horizon II site and two pieces of earth-moving equipment remain. Some construction workers were there today at 4:15.

[burbman08]

A new chain link fence is up now around the Horizon II site and two pieces of earth-moving equipment remain. Some construction workers were there today at 4:15.

well with all the rain we have had in the city for the last week or so, im assuming alot of that topsoil that they brought in probably eroded and they are having to move it back.

[scguy88]

I noticed this week that Adesso now has a Marine's recruiting office and a store called Yoghurt is coming in the corner space. The yogurt store is interesting with Five Points getting one too.

[CorgiMatt]

USC makes a move. They have hired a new director for economic development to include Innovista.

http://www.thestate.com/524/story/1132375.html?storylink=Breaking%20News%20Newsletter

[CorgiMatt]

Mr. Herriott, USC's new director of economic development (or something like that) says Innovista's focus has been too much on buildings and not enough on businesses.

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/1134429.html

[krazeeboi]

Seems like a right move, going with a business leader with a proven track record to lead Innovista. We'll see how things progress from here.

[CorgiMatt]

This morning's editorial from The State says the new approach to Innovista is encouraging. It's supposed to be about research first, buildings second. Lord knows USC has the research going on.

http://www.thestate.com/opinion/story/1147755.html

[krazeeboi]

Columbia City Council members narrowly approved two controversial tax districts Wednesday, one for Innovista and one that includes portions of north and east Columbia. Using bonds, the city will borrow money against the growth of commercial property taxes in the districts to pay for infrastructure projects in those areas.

[krazeeboi]

USC still has to come up with private matching funds for the public dollars that have so far been invested in Innovista.

[krazeeboi]

Apparently there's a bit of a buzz surrounding the bidding process for architecture firms for the Moore school of business building. Darla Moore "requested" that the Rafael Vinoly Architects firm be selected to design the building that will bear her name, and when it became apparent the firm was not going to win the bid, the school essentially threw out the bids (which came from four local firms) and the business school foundation decided to pay $4 million-plus to hire Vinoly and donate his services to the university. Experts say that the school has acted unethically in this process. While I certainly understand that there has to be a fair bidding process in play here, personally I hope the Vinoly firm gets to design the new school. Looking at their portfolio on their website, their design would surely be a welcome change from the monotonous blonde brick scheme that dominates new construction at USC, which a local firm would probably simply continue. Their design of just one project, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, demonstrates this:

[waccamatt]

There has to be some design sense in addition to money sense when looking at project bids. This is probably why we end up with so many ugly institutional buildings. The building above is very sweet.

[Spartan]

Yeah it was a very bad way to do business. USC shouldn't have started a bidding process if she knew what she wanted to do anyway. Her actions made the University look bad, but what's done is done.

As far as the architecture of the building, I read somewhere that the university wants new buildings to embrace that more traditional feel, meaning less of the "modern" style of which USC has plenty. The new Arnold School of Health building and the new Honors College are examples of this, but The Strom Thurmond Wellness & Fitness Center and the Dodie Academic Enrichment Center are, IMO, better examples of how neo-traditional architecture can be a good thing. The difference here is that with Darla Moore financing the thing, it seems to be except from normal university policies and procedures.

[krazeeboi]

I just hope that they're not going for a monolithic feel for all the newer buildings, Innovista included. At the least, they could use different types of brick or something while still retaining the neotraditional feel.

[gman430]

I just hope that they're not going for a monolithic feel for all the newer buildings, Innovista included. At the least, they could use different types of brick or something while still retaining the neotraditional feel.

I just hope one day they'll stop wasting tax dollars on this boondoggle of a project. Every other day, there seems to be another news story about something else going wrong with Innovista.

Edited April 19, 2010 by citylife

[krazeeboi]

I just hope one day they'll stop wasting tax dollars on this boondoggle of a project. Every other day, there seems to be another news story about something else going wrong with Innovista.

Since when are you interested in "tax dollars"? LOL Besides, everything tax dollars are spent on doesn't produce results overnight, just like RTP didn't when it was first established and it's probably the most successful research campus that exists. Innovista is a long-term venture and that's how its success or failure should be judged. Furthermore, this recent episode isn't really about anything gone "wrong," but "shady" would be a more accurate description. The business school really isn't even connected with Innovista in a fundamental sense; they just decided to build the school in that same area for visibility purposes and to make commercialization of research a bit easier.

[growingup15]

Since when are you interested in "tax dollars"? LOL Besides, everything tax dollars are spent on doesn't produce results overnight, just like RTP didn't when it was first established and it's probably the most successful research campus that exists. Innovista is a long-term venture and that's how its success or failure should be judged. Furthermore, this recent episode isn't really about anything gone "wrong," but "shady" would be a more accurate description. The business school really isn't even connected with Innovista in a fundamental sense; they just decided to build the school in that same area for visibility purposes and to make commercialization of research a bit easier.

Your right.

People always looking for a Magical Pill that can Solve everything in One second. everything Takes a Process

[Spartan]

I just hope one day they'll stop wasting tax dollars on this boondoggle of a project. Every other day, there seems to be another news story about something else going wrong with Innovista.

I'm guessing you aren't aware that all of the $90 million for this building were raised privately.

[growingup15]

I'm guessing you aren't aware that all of the $90 million for this building were raised privately.

Hehehe apparently not! but thats pretty good.

[gman430]

I'm guessing you aren't aware that all of the $90 million for this building were raised privately.

I'm not referring to this one building. I'm referring to the whole project. Over $100 million in tax dollars has been used for Innovista so far according to the latest news article from The State newspaper on the development. What has been accomplished so far with all of that money? How much more money are we going to have to give to this research park before it becomes a success like ICAR or RTP?

Edited April 20, 2010 by citylife

[krazeeboi]

I'm not referring to this one building. I'm referring to the whole project. Over $100 million in tax dollars has been used for Innovista so far according to the latest news article from The State newspaper on the development. What has been accomplished so far with all of that money? How much more money are we going to have to give to this research park before it becomes a success like ICAR or RTP?

You obviously know very little of the early beginnings of RTP, or just about any research park for that matter. RTP's early years were pretty uneventful as well, but after it landed IBM several years after it was established, things really took off from that point. Now it's the world's largest research park and continues to grow. As far as Innovista, the first setback with Craig Davis was the developer's fault (which is still puzzling to me, given his success with Centennial Campus in Raleigh), the second was the university's fault (the whole Parks/Roscoe fiasco), but hopefully things should turn around now that a new executive director is at the helm.