It’s a rainy December day, and a few delivery trucks are making their way through the mostly empty streets of Hub RTP, a new 100-acre development just off Davis Drive in Research Triangle Park. At the east end of the Hub, there’s a cluster of newly built structures, including the Horseshoe, a 160,000-square-foot retail and office building; MAA Nixie, a 406-apartment complex; and a small amphitheater staring across a creek and a patch of overgrown, yet-to-be-developed land. There are plans for much more — a hotel, wet labs and additional apartments.
It’s part of what its promoters call RTP 3.0, a recognition that in today’s “live, work, play” world, the old RTP 1.0 big company vision was increasingly out of step. RTP 2.0 included a nod to the value of newer, smaller companies, but was still big office-focused. What once held great appeal — an isolated research campus situated among the pines — is no longer enough to attract a younger generation of researchers and entrepreneurs.
“In the older suburban model, office buildings were surrounded by parking, separated from housing and amenities, and the area essentially shut down after hours.” says Richard Florida, a futurist whose books include “The Rise of the Creative Class.”
“That worked when work was more routine and people were willing to commute long distances. It doesn’t match how ideas form or how people work now. Innovation depends on interaction — planned and unplanned — and that happens more naturally in places with everyday life around them.”…