Sunday, October 21, 2007

The Best Downtown Parking Space for Your Hummer


Education is certainly a foundational element of any thriving community. In the case of a creative village, it's essential. Educational institutions serve as centers that attract the young, bohemian intellectuals that Richard Florida describes as an integral part of the creative class. In the case of Orlando's creative village, FIEA (Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy) fills that role beautifully. Born of a partnership between EA + UCF, FIEA is a graduate video game design school that offers a master's degree in interactive entertainment with areas of study including game design, development, art, programming and production. (More here - http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/.) So, it's not an ivy clad brick building institution that traditionalists might associate with graduate education. I mean, to support game development, the facilities include a sound stage large enough for military vehicles. Not your typical campus for sure. But FIEA provides us two critical creative village elements: education and technology. And - conveniently - it is located within the boundaries of the creative village site already. Orlando's creative village won't manifest itself like any part of any other city. While we might find cues to our approach elsewhere, it makes sense to use what's already here as the foundation from which we build something truly unique to Orlando.

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