Universities as Urban Catalysts

There is movement among colleges and universities to reconnect – or connect for the first time with the urban fabric around them. The trend is to move away from the ivory tower concept towards understanding the institution as a major economic and cultural force that can markedly improve the quality of urban development around them.

David Perry, director of the Great Cities Institute and professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago argues that universities have always had a connection, but it was more academic than economic or cultural. Recently in The Columbian, he is cited as saying, "The intellectual connection, however, eroded over time, as evidenced by the language of academia. Universities provided "outreach" and "extension services" to talk to the community and viewed cities as "laboratories" or "experiments.""

Examples a changed attitude include:

• Morehouse College in Atlanta is working with the city to help rebuild surrounding neighborhoods.
  
• Georgia Tech, which is also in Atlanta, is helping with downtown revitalization by partnering with private businesses to erect two buildings. One houses traditional university functions while the second is used for research and development conducted by private businesses matched with university researchers.


• In Chicago, DePaul University restored a former department store. The school uses the top three floors, leases the middle four floors to the city and brought retail outlets to the ground floor.
  
• Brock University, in Niagara, is also considering its relationship to St. Catharines, specifically in considering partnership in a performing arts centre. Discussion is ongoing.