What would you call a research campus whose heart and soul is not merely its knowledge economy buildings but rather the people who work in them?

At the University of South Carolina we call that place Innovista—an innovative, 21st-century approach to combining research, people, opportunity, and creative ideas. Innovista's new urbanism is shaping a unique live-learn-work-play environment that will set the standard for 21st century research.

Located in the heart of Columbia beside South Carolina's 200-year-old campus, Innovista is creating a mixture of world-class, high-density, high-tech workplaces, medium-density housing, waterfront recreational opportunities and abundant green space, all combined with retail commerce, creating an environment that inspires the mind as well as the soul.

Innovista consists of the new Innovation District and scenic Waterfront District and encompasses 8-million square feet of development potential spread over 500 acres in a contemporary urban setting. Representing a $140-million investment, the first phase of buildings—Horizon Center and Discovery Plaza—is under construction.

University researchers should begin moving into two state-of-the-art facilities, Horizon I and Discovery I, by the end of 2008. Among the top research talent South Carolina is attracting is Brian Benicewicz, an expert in both fuel cells and nanotechnology.

He will join the faculty in fall 2008 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and will hold the endowed chair at the Center of Economic Excellence for Polymer Nanocomposite Research. Benicewicz will build on the University's existing partnership with BASF through his own connections to the chemical industry giant.

Thanks in part to this infusion of talent and the University's long-standing expertise in hydrogen fuel cell and alternative energy research, the National Hydrogen Association will hold its annual conference in Columbia in spring 2009.

Three private companies are already committed to bringing their expertise and jobs to Innovista:

• High-tech search software developer Collexis
• Italian engineering and precision measurement provider Loccioni Group
• Fuel cell producer Gecko Energy Technologies

Also under construction is a new baseball stadium for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks; planning for a 30-acre Waterfront Park on the Congaree River is underway. Together, those projects will bring the total investment to more than $250 million.

For more detail or questions, contact: innovista@gwm.sc.edu