It's certainly no secret, at least to those of us who call Philadelphia home, that the University City district has for many years now been the proverbial nucleus of an incredibly well-connected and highly knowledgeable cluster of medical, science and academic professionals. But unfortunately, the area's so-called 'Eds and Meds' leaders have never fully succeeded in branding their community as one of the nation's most important research centers. That perception--or rather, the lack thereof--may soon be changing, thanks to the work of a newly-formed group calling itself the University City Innovation Collaborative.
The group is being headed by the
University City Science Center; the nonprofit
University City District; and the Science Center's development partner, a Baltimore company known as
Wexford Science and Technology.
The aim of the group, according to
Stephen Tang, the Science Center's CEO, involves making University City a world-class innovation center along the lines of similar regions like Cambridge, Mass., and San Francisco's Mission Bay district. And yet what sort of development that will actually entail still remains to be seen, because as Tang explains, "This is all a work in progress; the project doesn't really finish until April."
Part of what the project will almost certainly involve, however, aside from more spaces where innovation can take place, are recreational facilities. "You have to have amenities that allow creative people to be with like-minded people for extended periods of time," Tang says. "So that means retail, it means entertainment, it means after-hours places. All those things need to come together."
Tang is also quick to point out, however, that while "it's important that we have facilities, it's more important who's in those facilities, and for what reason. We need to foster better collaboration between organizations and institutions," he offers. "And that's not only to tell the story, but to build a better story as well."
Source: Stephen Tang, University City Science Center
Writer: Dan Eldridge
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