Johnstown Future Work

Innovation Hub Vision and Performance Framework

Anchor institutions investing in place and program in Central Business Districts such as Downtown Johnstown can improve quality of life, attract investment, build local wealth, support existing small business, and spur equitable and diversified economic development. With a long-term commitment to the region’s success, RK Mellon invested in the planning process to investigate the opportunities of partnerships to catalyze innovation activity to Downtown Johnstown.

The process was led by the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies and Vision Together 2025, a community development corporation located in Johnstown. This one-year planning process yielded a plan of action that will solidify Johnstown’s re-emergence as an innovation center.

Steven Baumgartner, as a core team member with the three world-class collaborators, led technical and high-performance building, systems strategy and resiliency layers for the project. Steven also led a value-based framework which aligned city, site and building project goals to a common set of shared values of the City, the non-profit partners and anchoring institution(s).

With goals in mind, the team developed a set of planning principles to guide decision-making relating to site selection and conceptual physical and operational design. These planning principles created the clear criteria by which to evaluate the site selection and inform the concept design future facilities.

Location:  Johnstown, PA

Client:  Community Foundation of the Alleghenies with Johnstown VIsion Together - Funded through R.K. Mellon Foundation.

Date: 2022-23

Collaborators:    

● Thaddeus Pawlowski, Director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes at Columbia University.

● Jeffrey Shumaker, Urban Designer, Urbanscape

● Marc Norman, Ideas and Action and an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Michigan, Incoming Dean of Res Estate at NYU