Building a high-tech ‘forest’ for creative industries

Copyright © 2022 Albuquerque Journal

The old First Baptist Church sanctuary and office tower at Broadway and Central Downtown may soon become a high-tech development center for the next generation of mixed-reality technologies.

That’s the next phase of growth for the University of New Mexico at Innovate ABQ – UNM acquired a seven-acre site in downtown Albuquerque in 2014 to build an advanced research and development zone for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Rainforest Innovations, which manages all of UNM’s technology transfer and economic development initiatives, is working with Mew Wolf founder and former CEO Vince Kadlubek to study the potential of turning the old church into a modern incubator for creative individuals and professionals. And entrepreneurs to integrate emerging, 21st century technologies into everything they do.

It will be a central gathering and collaboration space where people can come together to create new, innovative products and services, showcase and demonstrate on a mixed and virtual-reality platform. That could include everything from film, music and social media to game engine development, advanced web technologies and even breakthroughs in robotics and medicine to transformative treatments for mental illness and physical disabilities.

The basic concepts are still evolving.For the incubator, Kadlubek and the UNM team have dubbed “The Jungle,” an image of a place “fertile in wildlife” where people from all backgrounds come together to create things that haven’t existed before. Rainforest Innovations President and CEO Lisa Cutilla said.

“It will be a versatile tool for technology development in creative industries,” Kuuttila told the Journal. “We envision a central gathering space that includes shared workspaces and high-tech installations for demonstrations, presentations and entertainment.

The next step

Kadlubek will present his new idea for the jungle on Wednesday at the five-year anniversary of the Lobo Rainforest Building, which UNM opened in 2017.

The opening of the Rainforest building — along with the launch of Central New Mexico Community College’s FUSEMakerspace next door that same year — marked the first phase of growth at Innovate ABQ, which UNM plans to build on over time in collaboration with public and private partners.

In the year Since opening in 2017, the $35 million, six-story Rainforest Building has become a downtown hub for startup activity and entrepreneurship. But aside from the full build-out, the 7-acre Innovate ABQ site has since stalled almost entirely. Site.

The university regained control of the property in the summer of 2020 and has since pursued redevelopment of the 71,000-square-foot former church building for the next Innovate ABQ phase.

That building — which sits on the southeast corner of the property — was built in stages over 70 years. It includes a two-story chapel with a public entrance facing Central Avenue and a five-story office tower behind it.

A separate two-story structure, formerly used as a church school, is connected to the sanctuary and tower, and rises centrally to the west.

UNM hopes to preserve the historic East Side Shrine and Tower, repurposing the structure into a high-tech home in the woods.

It’s unclear what will happen to the two-story west wing, which UNM is expected to convert into a new bioscience center with wet labs and offices for startup companies.

California-based HatchSpaces LLC — which specializes in building research and development facilities for bioscience companies — signed a lease for the West Wing earlier this summer to build and manage the new biotechnology lab.

But the company unexpectedly terminated the lease on Aug. 17, putting the West Wing conversion in doubt, UNM Real Estate Director Tom Neal said.

“HatchSpaces decided the cost of renovating and converting it into a bioscience lab was too risky to lease the space to individual companies,” Nelle told the Journal. “This does not mean that part of the building is not viable for other businesses. The old school can be part of the jungle.

“We’re keeping our options open,” Kutila said. We still want to pursue the west wing as a bioscience center, but it could also be part of the digital arts facility we’re planning.

Think Meow Wolf

UNM drew Kadlubek to the Creative Technologies project in March, tapping into his knowledge and experience in reshaping modern, high-tech spaces that appeal to the younger generation — or the concept of a total online immersion for everyday work and life — that will grow as a future foundation for improved human interaction.

Kadlubek turned Meow Wolf into an international cultural phenomenon, helping to turn a bumpy bowling alley in Santa Fe into a mecca of art and fantasy based on human and technological innovation. That’s after he co-founded Spatial Activations as a creative consulting agency to help developers incorporate those same virtual concepts into the design of other physical spaces at Innovate ABQ, like the old church building.

For Jungle, the vision is to “marry” the immersive arts and entertainment economy – think Meow Wolf and the Van Gogh exhibit that recently landed in Albuquerque – creating a space where innovation through next-generation web technologies like “spatial computing” – where people from multiple industries can come together to build new things You can.

Spatial computing refers to combining things like sensors, ultra-fast data analysis, and virtual reality with real-world activities, creating “mixed reality” for human interaction.

“It all falls under the realm of the metaverse,” Kadlubek told the Journal. “Even though a lot of people were working on it, there wasn’t a specific place that I knew of to apply and showcase next-generation web technologies and projects.”

That includes advanced web platforms that enable secure online transactions, from arts and entertainment to robotics and blockchain architecture. For example, game development extends beyond entertainment markets.

“Game engines are not only for developing games, but also for building the future of Metavas,” Kadlubek said. “Everything passes, and it’s at the heart of a lot of future work. It will be a mixed-use industrial hub for New Mexico and beyond.

suitable place

In addition to the building’s many offices and open spaces for personal and collaborative work, the chapel itself has a large, ready-made space for community events, presentations and arts-related entertainment, said Kelly Ward, executive director of UNM’s Lobo Development Corporation.

“We’ve been working to reimagine what those church spaces should look like, but we’ve always envisioned the sanctuary as a space for large gatherings, presentations and performances,” Ward told the Journal. “… we can do events with up to 1,200 people by taking the space into the digital world with virtual reality headsets for people to participate elsewhere.”

Improvement plans incorporate technology directly into the building’s new design, from modeling and simulation to testing and demonstrating virtual engagement and other immersive experiences in the church and elsewhere.

“It’s going to be purpose-built with important technologies built into the design,” Ward said.

That could include location sensors and audio sensors and projection mapping for space and location tracking, all supported by wireless, ultra-fast 5G and 6G networks, Kadlubek said.

“Those things will be incorporated into the building, like a 21st century plumbing for the metaverse,” he said.

The project and building design is still in the conceptual stage.

“We’re evaluating feasibility and trying to figure it all out,” Ward said. “It can take 12 months to simply decide whether to pursue or continue.”

But the university team is gung-ho on the odds.

“I’m interested in jazz in a way that inspires people who come to the scene to be at the forefront of emerging industries,” Ward said. This includes lab people, university people and everyday people who want to get involved. We offer everything to people with great ideas.