Can the city become a place of makers again?

We usually talk about "disruptive" technologies in terms of how they may upend traditional business models. What if the new technologies also disrupt the seemingly intractable societal models of "inner city poverty",  "suburbanization of jobs"  and the disconnect of where low skill people live and where low skill jobs are? Exhibit 1: Open Works Baltimore. 

"We see it as a platform for people to realize their dreams,” Holman said. “Teach a man to 3-D print, he might have a job in five or six years. Teach a man to weld and he might walk into a mechanic shop and have a job tomorrow.” (Will Holman project coordinator of Open Works Baltimore).

The new Open Works, rendering by Cho Benn Holback/Younts Design

Open Works will provide a  $10 million dollar 34,000 sqft opportunity facility in the heavily dis invested Greenmount Ave corridor at the edge of the Station North Arts District. Who says the days of making suff in Baltimore is a thing of the past? 

Cho Benn Holback is the architect. 

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

See BBJ article:

Site of the new Open Works facility at Greenmount and Oliver Streets (photo: ArchPlan)