How Colleges Can Foster Development Zones

Confronted with slack economies and urgent about economic renewal, cities and regions in the United States and abroad are creating diverse new redevelopment zones to build on the strengths of anchor institutions (universities, medical complexes, and corporate headquarters) through a combination of urban design strategies, innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives, and business incubators.

In Providence, Rhode Island, the idea of an “innovation district” is the basis of its own regeneration effort with the relocation of Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School to an emerging 360-acre Knowledge District in the city’s relatively drab Jewelry District. Here, a fusion of industry cluster, pro-entrepreneurship, and place-making strategies is working to build an urban innovation economy one firm and one block at a time.