NEWS

Innovation Oakland is a wayfinding strategy and system for Oakland, the world renowned university and hospital district of Pittsburgh. It not only will provide “direction, information, and destination,” but will also demonstrate and celebrate the integration of leading edge technology, design, and public art. Innovation Oakland will be the prototype for place-based wayfinding systems worldwide. The technology and techniques developed for Innovation Oakland will create economic development and jobs in the Southwestern Pennsylvania region.

Innovation Oakland, spanning four square miles of pedestrian-packed environments with multiple bus lines, extensive parking, and a heavily used traffic network, will re-conceptualize information flows in the urban environment. Solutions will include analog signage, digital kiosks with interactive LED touch screen displays and web-based data, and wireless data delivery to hand held digital devices and remote computers. Innovation Oakland will highlight Oakland’s unique assets while providing critical information such as real-time public transportation schedules, parking availability and locations, ZipCar locations and availability, bike rack locations, community events, hospital facilities, museum exhibits, and locations and descriptions of the many restaurants, retail, and service businesses. Innovation Oakland will be user -friendly, engaging and informing residents, workers, students, faculty, researchers, and visitors.

Oakland is the third largest business district in Pennsylvania after Center City Philadelphia and Downtown Pittsburgh. It is home to three universities, five hospitals, two museums, and many smaller institutions. Oakland, with its unmatched research base and medical concentration, is the driver of the regional economy. Every day 100,000 people arrive in Oakland to work, study, visit one of the institutions, shop, and dine. Over one quarter of visitors arrive by public transit.

In November 2002 the Oakland community prepared The Future of Oakland: A Community Investment Strategy. Four consensus initiatives were agreed upon:

• Create a Sense of Place in Oakland
• Make it Easier to Get Into and Around in Oakland
• Stimulate Neighborhood Revitalization
• Foster Technology Development

Addressing the wayfinding needs of Oakland requires a far-reaching vision to match the activities and research of its institutions that are shaping the future of the world. In order to keep and retain the talent that fuels these activities and in order to attract new resources to expand and consolidate innovative activities, Oakland must develop a world class public realm and state of the art wayfinding mechanisms that are not only functional, but are also, in themselves, creative and iconic in how they represent the assets of the community and symbolize the “sparks of genius” behind new ideas.