INSPIRATION
Vital urban environments are attracting the next generation of innovators
Troy has the raw material for an innovation district. Troy’s size gives it charm, yet until now, it has never generated the critical mass necessary to sustain an innovation community. A model identified by the Brookings Institute sets out guidelines that strengthen innnovation hubs to foster makers, creators, and doers. It’s time to codify what already exists, allowing what is happening in Troy today to scale to a next generation community. The combination of the incoming population, Troy’s pedestrian scale, and the presence of RPI check all the Brookings Institute’s boxes for success.
Brookings Institute
The case for growth centers - How to spread tech innovation across America, December 2019
City of Troy Comprehensive Plan
An underlying discovery of our multi-year innovation district study was the necessity of repairing the urban renewal scar separating Troy’s Hedley District and its Historic District. Linear north south alignments were severed with Urban Renewal. Making both districts work as one seems requisite to a successful innovation district.
Realize Troy Comprehensive Plan, May 2018
At Bryce, Our efforts focus on place-making
The Brooking Institute guidelines reference the act of giving district spaces unique identities or “place-making. Currently, the heart of Troy is beset with suburban thinking. Where squares and pedestrian spaces should exist, we find only an urban renewal wasteland.
Meanwhile, the Brookings Institute’s place-making guidelines require a critical mass of innovators. Inside our buildings, populations of organically grown startups like Levrx, Velan Studios, and WB Games NY, are doubling and tripling in size annually. Upwards of 50 percent of their staff prefer to live in the city where they work. This organically exploding community offers us the opportunity to remake a city center which “builds on and revalues the intrinsic qualities of cities’ proximity, density, authenticity, and vibrancy.”
The model is taking shape
As a matter of practicality, organic growth also needs flexibility. We have been maneuvering hundreds of workers in a dense geography for the past few years. Just last year, Troy Web outgrew their home in the Market Block as Velan Studios outgrew their recent fit-up. As we started preparing the Troy Web space for Velan Studios, WB Games NY exercised a right of first refusal, setting off a new sequence of musical chairs. The Troy Innovation District and CFA award repositions Troy’s urban renewal to become more adaptable to the ebb and flow of this new breed of innovators.
Our 2020 improvements to the Atrium and Frear Building lay the ground work for the district. Locating Innovation Hall atop the Broadway side of the Atrium moves Troy’s excitement closer to 4th Street. We have to leapfrog the Atrium to make Fulton Market and Market Square. We have to be ready to redevelop the Uncle Sam Parking Garage site to get to Franklin Square, which puts you at Troy’s Federal Street gateway.
