Leeds internet quarter focuses on digital development
A pioneering new internet quarter is being developed in the city of Leeds, Northern England, with the aim of making the Yorkshire town a centre for e-commerce. The $21 million ‘e-HQ’ initiative, based on the Officehomes(tm) Concept supported by local inward investment agencies and developers, will see the 3.5-acre site of a former engineering foundry in the Holbeck area developed into an ‘urban village’ featuring shops, apartments, cafés and restaurants.
It will also provide almost 28,000 sq ft of incubator space for high-technology businesses, together with the city’s first dedicated live/work accommodation which, it is hoped, will help to attract e-businesses and entrepreneurs. Local RDA Yorkshire Forward will provide a range of business advice and access to professional services. The first phase of residential units at the Round Foundry site, on Globe Road, will be completed by spring 2003. It is hoped the development will provide a focus for the digital industries, which have been identified as key to development in Leeds and the Yorkshire region.
Friday, April 27
Officehomes(tm) @ Britians iPARK Business Center
A pioneering new business centre in Hammersmith, west London is set to develop stronger ties with South Korea, making the UK the leading link in Europe for one of the world’s most techno-competent nations. The iPark incubator complex, set up by the Korea IT Industry Promotion Association (KIPA), will provide small and medium-sized Korean companies with a fully-serviced working environment from which to launch their European operations. Once established, companies will move out to larger premises, allowing new entrants to benefit from the support of the centre.
Four Korean companies are at present involved in the iPark project, covering areas such as multi-player internet and Wap games, data compression and transfer technology and software for website construction; this number is expected to grow quickly to at least ten. The centre is also expected to act as a focus for collaboration between UK and Korean high-tech companies. In early December Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt signed a memorandum of understanding with her Korean counterpart stating that the two countries would work together to develop and facilitate e-commerce.
In Northern Ireland, Northbrook Technology, a subsidiary of the Allstate Corporation of Chicago, has announced a $15.4 million expansion that represents one of the biggest ever software investments in the province. Allstate, one of the world’s largest property and casualty insurers, set up its Northern Ireland operation in Belfast in 1999. It already employs 250 people; the expansion will see a further 300 taken on in Belfast and 250 at a new centre in Londonderry. Northern Irish exporters meanwhile have banded together in a new internet database that provides an overview of the products and services they offer, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized companies. More than 800 companies are represented on the ‘cyber signpost’ which can be accessed at: www.idbni.co.uk/keyexport.
The R&D expertise of UK companies will be highlighted at CeBIT, the trade show for the high-technology industries which takes place in Hannover, Germany on 13-20 March 2002, in particular research that is at present developing the next generation of information and communication technology. All the UK’s regional and national development agencies will be supporting the UK@CeBIT initiative, and academics from 16 leading UK universities will deliver presentations on subjects ranging from new communications architectures to self-timed circuit techniques and hybrid semiconductors.
A large group of companies from the UK’s Computing Services and Software Association (CSSA) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) will also be attending the show. For more information, call Claire Nettley on +44 1275 850900.
Four Korean companies are at present involved in the iPark project, covering areas such as multi-player internet and Wap games, data compression and transfer technology and software for website construction; this number is expected to grow quickly to at least ten. The centre is also expected to act as a focus for collaboration between UK and Korean high-tech companies. In early December Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt signed a memorandum of understanding with her Korean counterpart stating that the two countries would work together to develop and facilitate e-commerce.
In Northern Ireland, Northbrook Technology, a subsidiary of the Allstate Corporation of Chicago, has announced a $15.4 million expansion that represents one of the biggest ever software investments in the province. Allstate, one of the world’s largest property and casualty insurers, set up its Northern Ireland operation in Belfast in 1999. It already employs 250 people; the expansion will see a further 300 taken on in Belfast and 250 at a new centre in Londonderry. Northern Irish exporters meanwhile have banded together in a new internet database that provides an overview of the products and services they offer, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized companies. More than 800 companies are represented on the ‘cyber signpost’ which can be accessed at: www.idbni.co.uk/keyexport.
The R&D expertise of UK companies will be highlighted at CeBIT, the trade show for the high-technology industries which takes place in Hannover, Germany on 13-20 March 2002, in particular research that is at present developing the next generation of information and communication technology. All the UK’s regional and national development agencies will be supporting the UK@CeBIT initiative, and academics from 16 leading UK universities will deliver presentations on subjects ranging from new communications architectures to self-timed circuit techniques and hybrid semiconductors.
A large group of companies from the UK’s Computing Services and Software Association (CSSA) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) will also be attending the show. For more information, call Claire Nettley on +44 1275 850900.
Monday, April 23
Officehomes(tm) aligned with New Century Development
New Century Development (NCD) is the Center’s initiative to undertake research activities and communication forums aimed at understanding and improving the physical real estate development process in the 21st century. This initiative is meant to be interdisciplinary and international in scope, providing avenues to link across various departments at MIT, and between MIT and the community of professional practice engaged in building the developments of the future. (Toward a Practical Science of Project Development - The NCD research initiatives has joined together with the MIT Engineering Systems Division, the MIT Design Laboratory, and the National University of Singapore Department of Real Estate to focus on the practical science of project development. A symposium is planned for October 2007.)
New Century CitiesNew Century Cities (NCC) is a joint research project among the Center for Real Estate, City Design and Development in Urban Studies and Planning, and the Smart Cities Group/Media Lab which focuses on a new generation of development projects.
These very large-scale projects are deliberately located at the intersection of technology, urban design, and real estate development. They can be found in New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Belfast, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Seoul, and Singapore. In addition, projects are on the drawing boards in places such as Florianopolis, Brazil, and Zaragoza, Spain. These projects vary in size and in how their development is organized and led.
NCC projects are some of the largest developments undertaken since the "New Cities" projects of post-World War II Europe. As mixed use projects, they are home to technology enterprises, including enterprises that leverage information technology, and to creative workers who both live and work in the development zones. CITY ANNOUNCES NEW MIXED-INCOME DEVELOPMENT
CITY ANNOUNCES NEW MIXED-INCOME Officehomes(tm) DEVELOPMENT @ BRIG SITE - Three-Quarters of the More Than 400 Residential Units Will Be AffordableDepartment of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan announced today the selection of Navy Green Joint Venture, a partnership of Dunn Development Corporation and L&M Equity Participants, Ltd, for the redevelopment of the Navy Brig site in Wallabout, Brooklyn.
The redevelopment of this 103,000 square foot former prison site will create a unique mixed-use community, consisting of 434 residential units, commercial space, open space and a community facility.
To oversee the development of the site’s master plan, design and LEED certification, Navy Green Joint Venture has selected the architectural team of FXFowle Architects, Curtis + Ginsberg Architects LLP and Architecture in Formation. By combining affordable rental and homeownership units with market-rate co-ops, townhouses and supportive housing, the redevelopment of the Brig will result in an unprecedented mixed-income community.
Approximately 77 percent of the residential units will be affordable to families earning between 30 percent and 130 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), which is equivalent to a salary range of $21,250 to $92,170 for a household of four or $14,900 to $64,480 for a single household.
The affordable units will be part of Mayor Bloomberg’s ten-year New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers, more than the entire population of Atlanta. The Mayor’s Plan is the largest municipal affordable housing initiative in the nation’s history.
Thursday, April 19
730 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois
730 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois - EMA designed this landmark mixed-use development project located on Chicago’s famed “Magnificent Mile” along North Michigan Avenue, one of the most productive retail streets in the world. The master plan for this project comprised a 235,000 sf block showcasing flagship stores for six national retail entities, among them Tiffany, Polo Ralph Lauren, Pottery Barn, and American Girl Place. Elkus Manfredi worked with individual tenants to help each express their iconic brand in a unique retail space. The challenge was to give tenants freedom to create distinctive spaces while ensuring structural integrity for the air rights above.
Sansom Common Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
EMA provided the master planning and architectural design for a 305,000 square foot mixed-use development, part of the University of Pennsylvania Campus Master Plan. The development consists of a 56,000 square foot University bookstore, the Inn at Penn, an adjoining 195,000 square foot, 259-room hotel, and 54,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurants. The bookstore is the retail anchor of the development.CityPlace West Palm Beach, Florida
CityPlace is a paradigm of the New Urbanism at its best: a vibrant pedestrian environment, diverse streetscapes, and signature public spaces juxtaposed with a rich program of cultural elements mixed with residential, retail, office, hotel, dining, and a variety of entertainment venues.The architecture’s style and human scale are inspired by the historic southern Mediterranean/Italian architecture brought to the Palm Beaches from Europe.
100 Cambridge Street Boston, Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Legislature invited development proposals to rehabilitate the defunct 22-story Leverett P. Saltonstall State Office Building. Partnering with MassDevelopment, Elkus Manfredi Architects’ winning design solution created a signature mixed-use development and achieved far more than the project’s original scope through incorporation of private sector components that carry much of the project cost. The repositioned office building itself presents two distinct images and addresses, seamlessly combining very different public and private identities and functions.CityNorth Phoenix, Arizona
CityNorth, a 5 million sf, mixed-use environment, is the urban core and major regional center for the Northeast Valley of Phoenix. As a 24/7 pedestrian environment built on 144 acres, CityNorth will foster a dynamic mix of retail, restaurant, residential, hotel, office, cultural, civic, entertainment and fitness uses. The development will possess three districts based on an innovate design idea-- the "District Concept."
Bloomfield Park Bloomfield, Michigan
Bloomfield Park has been designed to be both a commercial center and a thriving residential neighborhood. Located in Bloomfield Township, outside of Pontiac, Michigan, this 80-acre mixed-use development will refine the concepts of luxury office, hotel, residential and recreational life— the combination of these elements will create a traditional downtown.Glendale Town Center Glendale, California
Glendale Town Center will redevelop four run down and under utilized city blocks in the commercial heart of Glendale to become a vital part of this community located just north of downtown Los Angeles. The 16-acre project will provide approximately 450,000 square feet of stores and restaurants, 330 residences and parking for residents and the public. It will offer a 1.75-acre park as its major civic amenity, capable of supporting casual public use and programmed events. The park will be linked across Brand Boulevard, the major north-south traffic artery, to another city park by a network of open spaces that will also support the retail and residential uses.
The Pier at Caesar'sAtlantic City, New Jersey
EMA is currently developing new exterior and interior design for a 900-foot long retail pier, located opposite the Caesars Palace Casino on Atlantic City’s famous boardwalk. The Pier at Caesars stretches into the Atlantic Ocean and will contain over 400,000 square feet on four floors. The pier structure itself will be rebuilt and all construction above the Pier will be new. At the terminus of the arcade is a theater for daily live performances.
1650 Biscayne Boulevard Miami, Florida
EMA is currently providing master planning and architectural services for 1650 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. The site is located in the "Heart of the Arts" District, a 25-block zone on Biscayne Boulevard between Miami's new performing arts center and the design district to the North. Biscayne Boulevard is undergoing a transformation that will bring significant new residential construction and new life to this district. The project will include approximately 900 residential units in two separate towers and a low-rise structure along N.E. 16th and 17th Street. Approximately 100,000 square feet of retail, office, condominiums, and health club will fill the podium.TrilogyBoston, Massachusetts
The Trilogy residential development will contain approximately 560 residential units, 35,000 square feet of active retail space at street level, and approximately 500 parking spaces in three levels of below-grade parking. The project will greatly enhance the quality and character of the Fenway area, north of Boylston Street. Trilogy will address a number of urban design challenges, including creating continuity and a transition between the smaller scale of the residential buildings south of Boylston Street and the larger scale of the commercial buildings north of Boylston Street.January 18, 2005 - New Century Cities emerge around the globe
A small but stellar group of about 150 invited participants and students convened at MIT on January 18 and 19 for the New Century Cities symposium. They hailed from four continents, and ranged from “traditional” city-builders—architects, city planners, and construction firms—to the newest partners in the city development process— high tech (Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM) and media firms, as well as historians, educators, and artists.
What brought them together was a shared belief that the cities of the next century will be radically unlike the cities of centuries past. In these new cities, information, communication, and media technologies will be woven into the fabric of a community’s physical, social, and commercial life. In other words, the “built environment” itself will become a living facility that anticipates emerging life styles, nurtures creativity, and celebrates the experience of "place."
The symposium showcased some spectacular examples of these New Century Cities projects (NCCs). Many NCCs are very large scale developments; all are laboratories for exploring new ways of living, working and learning. In each of them, advanced communications and technology are being used to improve the quality of urban life, promoting both social as well as economic well-being.
The projects that were presented ranged from implementing “wireless” neighborhoods (lower Manhattan) and even whole cities (Philadelphia), to developing entirely new towns, such as Seoul’s Digital Media City, a focus for media technology industry and lifestyles. Projects ranged in size from one-north, Singapore’s 450-acre district for advanced technology research, to the 24-acre Northern Ireland Science Park, a high tech incubator that will also provide “neutral ground for the formerly divided social communities in Belfast.”
Also included on the roster of projects were communities that evolved around major educational and research institutions. The area in Cambridge surrounding MIT, which was waggishly termed the "Republic of MIT" is one. Other MIT initiatives included research on technology-supported homes, streets, and neighborhoods.
Crossroads Copenhagen, an “international center of research and development in the fields of culture and media,” was developed in part by the University of Copenhagen. The developers of Crossroads Copenhagen noted that public involvement was an integral feature of their development process, and emphasized that this was a particular point of pride for them. Public involvement also characterized the development of Helsinki’s Arabianranta district, where the focus is on art and design; in Arabianranta, collective online decision-making was used to bring residents into the layout process for the residential parts of the district.
Welcome to the new age of urban development. New forms of connectivity, which have already reshaped working and living patterns everywhere, are also reshaping the built environ-ment.
“In the future,” said William Mitchell, head of the Media Arts and Sciences Program, “connectivity and intelligence will be part of a building, just as lighting and air-conditioning are today.” He described buildings of the future as “programmable devices responding actively and intelligently to changing needs and conditions,” with, say, agile interiors that can be reconfigured on demand into large or small workspaces, and light-sensing exterior “skins” that dynamically block glare.
The various projects were presented during a series of panels. The panels were followed by brainstorming. Attendees sought to extract common ground, not to mention common terminology, from the welter of social, intellectual, technological, and political factors that impacted their projects. In the end, they converged on the phrase "killer environment," an analog of the software industry's "killer app," to encapsulate what NCCs bring to the urban scene.
The symposium closed with the exhilarating sense that a new community of city developers had coalesced. The symposium was sponsored by the Center for Real Estate, the City Design and Development Group, and the Media Lab, all in the School of Architecture and Planning. Symposium organizers Dennis Frenchman, Director, City Design and Development Group, and Michael Joroff, Senior Lecturer, both from the department of Urban Studies and Planning, said they plan to hold future meetings.
More information about the symposium, including summaries of all the projects that were discussed, is available at the MIT Center for Real Estate’s website.
Just-in-time architecture is one of the many new design concepts represented in NCCs that are being made feasible by advances in technology. MIT Media Lab researchers have developed and patented a wall surface that can go from transparent to opaque, or carry text and images. This sketch illustrates how such materials allow space to adapt quickly to various uses and levels of privacy; an office can become, on demand, completely transparent, partially shaded or opaque, or an enclosed conference room with moving images and text on the walls. (From Dennis French's presentation)April 25, 2000 - Letter of Intent
Respectable citizens and reporters, thank you for joining us here today.
When I first assumed the office of mayor in July 1998, I promised to develop a futuristic town that could lead the future of Seoul in Sangam-dong where the World Cup Stadium was being constructed. Based on the one and half years of research carried out by Korean and foreign experts, I’d like to elucidate the details of the development plan today. As you know, the 6.6㎢(1,586 acres) of land in Sangam-dong is one of the last undeveloped areas on such a large scale remaining in Seoul.
It’s a strategic place that offers easy access to the world at large through the Yeongjong-do New Airport Highway, subway line #6 and Gyeongeui Railroad. And the eyes of people all over the world will be focused on this area during the 2002 World Cup.In this area, I plan to build a futuristic ‘New Millennium City’ that integrates and embodies ‘information’ and ‘environment’ - the two hot topics of the new millennium.
This new city will be formed into an ‘ecological town’ where people and nature coexist, ‘a town of information technology’ that will host high-tech digital media companies and the ‘gateway town’ of Seoul that opens to Asia and all regions of the world. Prominent Korean and foreign businesses in the fields of software and multimedia will locate in Millennium City.
Along with the ‘Media Production Center’ that interfaces with the Yeouido broadcasting district, Internet digital broadcasting companies and other next generation media industries will be housed at the central business district outfitted with a high-speed fiber-optic communication network.
A science museum that nurtures scientific minds and a digital media-training center that educates professional manpower will also set up here.At the outer perimeters of Millennium City, an environmentally friendly housing complex is currently being built for both Korean and foreign residents. The complex will employ recycling and energy-effective systems such as water recycling and heating facilities that uses the accumulated gas from the landfill.
As for transportation in the complex, it will be formed with non-pollutant ‘Green Network’ methods like bicycles and other new traffic systems. In addition, the Nanjido landfill, which takes up about half of the southern area of the new town, and the Nanji Stream and watersides of the Han River will be reborn as large environmental parks to serve as a leisure space for the residents of Millennium City.
Many foreign countries are competing in the era of information and environment. For example, the Science Complex in Singapore, Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, Hshinchu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan and the Millennium Town in London are exemplary cases. The development purpose of our Millennium City has similar principles. However, many foreign experts agree that the Millennium City has the potential to surpass those newly developed cities overseas.
Unlike most other case cities, the Millennium City integrates two themes - information and environment - and embodies them both in one place. Moreover, the unique geopolitical location, the existence of Nanjido landfill that will prove to be an epoch-making case of environmental recycling, and the world-wide marketing potential through the World Cup will further increase the growth potential of Millennium City.
Unlike previous construction projects for apartment complexes, it will take a long time to complete the Millennium City Project since it will be developed into a futuristic town that integrates various merits of futuristic society. But the undertaking shouldn’t be put off.
I personally promise to complete the Millennium Park project before the 2002 World Cup, and also the land development for an environmentally friendly housing complex. As for the Hi-Tech Business Area, we will commence the land development work at the same time as we complete the process of selecting core businesses and foreign investors.
In June 2002, the eyes of the world will be centered on the Sangam region where the World Cup is to be held. At that time, they will not only see the biggest stadium in Asia, but also the 10 million Seoul citizen’s grand vision and determination to make continual developments by combining environmental recycling and high-tech industries.
And through this, they will compare Seoul with the cities of Japan, which is the co-host nation of the World Cup. Developing the Millennium City is a project of grand magnitude that will lead Seoul and Korea to the future. I earnestly ask for your unwavering interest and encouragement in making smooth progress in this project.
Thank you.
Goh Kun,
the 31st Mayor of Seoul Metropolitan Government
When I first assumed the office of mayor in July 1998, I promised to develop a futuristic town that could lead the future of Seoul in Sangam-dong where the World Cup Stadium was being constructed. Based on the one and half years of research carried out by Korean and foreign experts, I’d like to elucidate the details of the development plan today. As you know, the 6.6㎢(1,586 acres) of land in Sangam-dong is one of the last undeveloped areas on such a large scale remaining in Seoul.
It’s a strategic place that offers easy access to the world at large through the Yeongjong-do New Airport Highway, subway line #6 and Gyeongeui Railroad. And the eyes of people all over the world will be focused on this area during the 2002 World Cup.In this area, I plan to build a futuristic ‘New Millennium City’ that integrates and embodies ‘information’ and ‘environment’ - the two hot topics of the new millennium.
This new city will be formed into an ‘ecological town’ where people and nature coexist, ‘a town of information technology’ that will host high-tech digital media companies and the ‘gateway town’ of Seoul that opens to Asia and all regions of the world. Prominent Korean and foreign businesses in the fields of software and multimedia will locate in Millennium City.
Along with the ‘Media Production Center’ that interfaces with the Yeouido broadcasting district, Internet digital broadcasting companies and other next generation media industries will be housed at the central business district outfitted with a high-speed fiber-optic communication network.
A science museum that nurtures scientific minds and a digital media-training center that educates professional manpower will also set up here.At the outer perimeters of Millennium City, an environmentally friendly housing complex is currently being built for both Korean and foreign residents. The complex will employ recycling and energy-effective systems such as water recycling and heating facilities that uses the accumulated gas from the landfill.
As for transportation in the complex, it will be formed with non-pollutant ‘Green Network’ methods like bicycles and other new traffic systems. In addition, the Nanjido landfill, which takes up about half of the southern area of the new town, and the Nanji Stream and watersides of the Han River will be reborn as large environmental parks to serve as a leisure space for the residents of Millennium City.
Many foreign countries are competing in the era of information and environment. For example, the Science Complex in Singapore, Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, Hshinchu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan and the Millennium Town in London are exemplary cases. The development purpose of our Millennium City has similar principles. However, many foreign experts agree that the Millennium City has the potential to surpass those newly developed cities overseas.
Unlike most other case cities, the Millennium City integrates two themes - information and environment - and embodies them both in one place. Moreover, the unique geopolitical location, the existence of Nanjido landfill that will prove to be an epoch-making case of environmental recycling, and the world-wide marketing potential through the World Cup will further increase the growth potential of Millennium City.
Unlike previous construction projects for apartment complexes, it will take a long time to complete the Millennium City Project since it will be developed into a futuristic town that integrates various merits of futuristic society. But the undertaking shouldn’t be put off.
I personally promise to complete the Millennium Park project before the 2002 World Cup, and also the land development for an environmentally friendly housing complex. As for the Hi-Tech Business Area, we will commence the land development work at the same time as we complete the process of selecting core businesses and foreign investors.
In June 2002, the eyes of the world will be centered on the Sangam region where the World Cup is to be held. At that time, they will not only see the biggest stadium in Asia, but also the 10 million Seoul citizen’s grand vision and determination to make continual developments by combining environmental recycling and high-tech industries.
And through this, they will compare Seoul with the cities of Japan, which is the co-host nation of the World Cup. Developing the Millennium City is a project of grand magnitude that will lead Seoul and Korea to the future. I earnestly ask for your unwavering interest and encouragement in making smooth progress in this project.
Thank you.
Goh Kun,
the 31st Mayor of Seoul Metropolitan Government
November 1996 - A Corporate Culture
In November 1996, a small team of people were assembled to begin what was eventually to become a well known brand in the hospitality field. At that time this team consisted of several people some of whom had already know each other from years past and others that would become very close for year to come.
While the project that brought them together created a foundation for them to get to know each other for what seemed to be just another hotel renovation, it was actually the assemblage of the incubation of the members that would incubate a concept which 10 years later would change the world that we lived in to something else.
The new world and that would become would be based on the concepts that were created during that experimentation in entrepreneurship, friendship and team work. It wasn't until several years later that the relationships fostered here would result in something which defined the cross road into the 21st century.
At that time the team simply thought they were developing a product. The product was the embodiment of a great IDEA. Today, it is commonly referred to as The SPOT. It is the symbol of the collaboration that was developed as the first product of LifestYle Brokers Inc.
Several years later the community that participated in its development would be called Officehomes(tm) - A Franchise of work/live housing for Independent Professionals that helps to build community and strengthen identity.
However, how this came to fruition, is a story that developed accross the globe, in many nations, amongst peole of many different origins. It is a story of how "Thoughts become Things" and how social capital can build nations.
The relationship of the characters was established on the ancient principals which guided our ancestors and their communities more than 5000 years ago using the same principals of Trust, Loyalty, Respect and Reciprocity. From the Jordanian Desert nabatian city of Petra to the Global outcrop of New Digital Cities, from the jungles of southern Africa to the peaks of northern Canada, from a New City of 100,000 to a New City of 1,000,000, this is a story about progress.
While the project that brought them together created a foundation for them to get to know each other for what seemed to be just another hotel renovation, it was actually the assemblage of the incubation of the members that would incubate a concept which 10 years later would change the world that we lived in to something else.
The new world and that would become would be based on the concepts that were created during that experimentation in entrepreneurship, friendship and team work. It wasn't until several years later that the relationships fostered here would result in something which defined the cross road into the 21st century.
At that time the team simply thought they were developing a product. The product was the embodiment of a great IDEA. Today, it is commonly referred to as The SPOT. It is the symbol of the collaboration that was developed as the first product of LifestYle Brokers Inc.
Several years later the community that participated in its development would be called Officehomes(tm) - A Franchise of work/live housing for Independent Professionals that helps to build community and strengthen identity.
However, how this came to fruition, is a story that developed accross the globe, in many nations, amongst peole of many different origins. It is a story of how "Thoughts become Things" and how social capital can build nations.
The relationship of the characters was established on the ancient principals which guided our ancestors and their communities more than 5000 years ago using the same principals of Trust, Loyalty, Respect and Reciprocity. From the Jordanian Desert nabatian city of Petra to the Global outcrop of New Digital Cities, from the jungles of southern Africa to the peaks of northern Canada, from a New City of 100,000 to a New City of 1,000,000, this is a story about progress.
Digital Media City - Seoul Korea
For 15 years from 1978 to 1993, Nanji-do was a landfill for Seoul City’s garbage. Used charcoal briquettes and other waste produced during the course of city development piled up to form a mountain of trash. By the 1990s, the mountain had reached a height of 95 meters and a length of two kilometers, even after being compressed into a rectangular shape that weighed over 120 million tons. When considering that the height of Mt. Nam-san in Seoul is 262 meters, this mass of trash is almost unimaginable.
From 1996, Seoul began to launch stabilization projects to withhold further industrial developments and build facilities to prevent the environmental contamination caused by the landfill zone. The stabilization projects included reinforcing the inclines of the landfill that were on the verge of collapsing, minimizing the sludge from the trash and collecting harmful gases through gas. The gas accumulated in the process will be utilized as the heat energy necessary for heating nearby facilities of Seoul World Cup Stadium and the Sangam Housing Development Area.
The re-engineered region was first designated a housing development zone in March 1997.
A ‘New Seoul Town Development’ project was announced when Mr. Goh Kun became mayor in July 1998. In August of the same year, the general planning for New Seoul Town project began to take form. Based on this, a master plan was established for the Millennium City (Sangam New Millennium Town). Along with drawing up a city plan to turn the Sangam region into a secondary center of Seoul, a subsequent plan was drafted to build a gateway town that embodies both information and ecology.
The plan is now being carried out in concrete, and encompasses separate projects such as World Cup Park, an environmentally friendly housing complex and Digital Media City.
From 1996, Seoul began to launch stabilization projects to withhold further industrial developments and build facilities to prevent the environmental contamination caused by the landfill zone. The stabilization projects included reinforcing the inclines of the landfill that were on the verge of collapsing, minimizing the sludge from the trash and collecting harmful gases through gas. The gas accumulated in the process will be utilized as the heat energy necessary for heating nearby facilities of Seoul World Cup Stadium and the Sangam Housing Development Area.
The re-engineered region was first designated a housing development zone in March 1997.
A ‘New Seoul Town Development’ project was announced when Mr. Goh Kun became mayor in July 1998. In August of the same year, the general planning for New Seoul Town project began to take form. Based on this, a master plan was established for the Millennium City (Sangam New Millennium Town). Along with drawing up a city plan to turn the Sangam region into a secondary center of Seoul, a subsequent plan was drafted to build a gateway town that embodies both information and ecology.
The plan is now being carried out in concrete, and encompasses separate projects such as World Cup Park, an environmentally friendly housing complex and Digital Media City.
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