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."
Planners also hope to tap into the "new urbanism" movement by offering plenty of amenities where scientists, entrepreneurs, and creative types from an array of industries can intermingle and, with a bit of serendipity, cross-pollinate ventures. "To be a neurocenter of the knowledge economy, fiber and telecom are not enough," says Josep Miquel Piqué, 22@Barcelona's chief executive. "You also need things like good food, wine, and aesthetics."
Full article:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...7050810294.htm