Innovation districts face a multi-dimensional challenge: how to create an exciting, educational, safe, and inclusive place. These qualities are essential to innovation districts—hyperlocal geographies that typically combine academic and medical institutions, corporate R&D centers, startups, and entrepreneurial support organizations, clustered in mixed-use communities to encourage creativity, collaboration, and innovation.
Creating a welcoming place isn’t easy. A district’s landscape may feel sterile or uninviting to residents and to a community, with many activities and events hidden from view inside buildings and labs. Transforming such environments requires a thoughtful approach: understanding what a community wants, taking time to experiment with public spaces and places, and identifying creative ways for financing activities to help residents feel ownership of the space.
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