Superpublic Urban Lab Launches in San Francisco

Superpublic, the nation’s first collaborative work space to host city, state and Federal policymakers is an urban lab focused on city innovations.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. -- Superpublic, an urban lab housed in a 5,000 square foot space located at 50 UN Plaza in San Francisco, opened this week.

The project by the city of San Francisco, the City Innovate Foundation and several academic and corporate partners is an open innovation lab focused on tackling city problems by developing commercial-grade solutions that can be used by cities anywhere in the world.

Developing relationships with corporate and key academic centers is critical to its success as a mission-driven working foundation, according to Superpublic’s website. Potential academic partners include University of California Berkeley, The Center for Design Research at Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab City Sciences.

Projects will be agile with structured oversight, leveraging partnerships with local creative and tech companies that help create a “vibrant startup environment.”

Notably, Superpublic’s work will involve legislators on municipal, state and federal levels joining project teams. For example, city of San Francisco is a finalist in the U.S. Department of Transportation Smart City Challenge, and Superpublic teams are supporting competition efforts.

The lab will be managed and projects will be selected by the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the City Innovate Foundation. Corporate partners include Microsoft, Deloitte and Renault. Projects are expected to come into Superpublic from city, state and federal agencies, and the lab will focus on three to four urban challenges per year.

Superpublic is co-located with teams from GSA’s 18F, a digital consultancy working with federal agencies to rapidly deploy tools and online services, and U.S. Digital Service.

“Entrepreneurs want a place where they can collaborate with government to improve their cities. Superpublic will give citizens a seat at the table to work on our most pressing issues,” said

California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom. “5O UN Plaza helped launch a new way of governing last century. It is only fitting that Superpublic will call it home as we reimagine how

services are delivered.”

The inspiration for Superpublic came from Superpublic in Paris, France, Future Cities Catapult in the United Kingdom, MaRs Discovery District in Toronto, Canada, and Civic Hall in New York and the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

For more information, read about Superpublic on the City Innovate Foundation website.

Andrea Fox is Editor of Gov1.com and Senior Editor at Lexipol. She is based in Massachusetts.

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