Center for Technology & Innovation, Inc., 321 Water Street, Binghamton, NY 13901, Telephone: 607-624-1090
Tech Works! museum has a home
Tech Works! makes its home at 321 Water Street, Binghamton, NY
In September 2009, the Center for Technology & Innovation (CT&I) entered a new and exciting phase. A site for the TechWorks! museum of invention and upstate industry was donated to CT&I by Ed and Karen Levene. The property fits the location, size, and space characteristics criteria laid out in CT&I's Museum Master Plan (2/2007)
The Vision
Tech Works! will be a museum of invention and upstate New York industry, in the spirit of a discovery center for adults. The Tech Works! experience will be 45-90 minutes, with a dozen major exhibits, archives reading room, Heavy Metal Café, and a gift shop. Tech Works! stories will be technically correct, told with a dry sense of humor. Visitors will make the transition from the real world to the Tech Works! world of the imagination as they enter through the Garden of Technology. The Garden of Technology, an outdoor plaza planted with sculptural decision trees and seating, will be sited as a forecourt to Tech Works! and a recreation destination on the Chenango River Trail.
The Museum Master Plan identified seven themes for TechWorks! exhibits:
Culture of invention & entrepreneurship
Tradition of precision manufacturing & craftsmanship
Trends
towards miniaturization
Dynamics of visual perception & simulation
Logic, circuits,
& decision making principles
Southern Tier industry helps win the Space Race
Environmental
legacy of 20th c. industry
Economic Impact
Tech Works! will offer both direct and indirect economic benefits to the community. Indirect economic benefits to the region from Tech Works! will come in the form of inspiring youth to become part of a technologically-savvy workforce and helping local industries leverage their heritage to create value in 21st century markets. When fully-built, Tech Works!'s projected audience is 71,000 visitors annually including 25,000 overnight guests and 23,000 day visitors(1), who will inject $ 6 million per year into the local economy.(2) This spending is expected to generate $ 40,000 - $ 85,000 in local tax revenue and a similar amount for the State each year.(3) About 97% of these revenues will come from visitors outside Broome and Tioga Counties and 90% will be spent outside Tech Works!.
1 Market Potential Study for the Center for Technology & Innovation, ConsultEcon, 2006
2 Per visitor spending, $45/day visitor, $169/overnight visitor courtesy of Greater Binghamton Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2008
3 The Arts and Economic Prosperity Calculator, Americans for the Arts, 2002
The Site at 321 Water Street, Binghamton, NY
TechWorks! will occupy a 30,000 sf historic brick factory built on the banks of the Chenango River for the Binghamton Ice Cream Company in 1912, expanded in 1946 for the General Ice Cream Company, and home to United Auto Parts from 1969-2008. While the historic 25,000 sf brick building is being renovated, CT&I will operate a workshop for collections management and exhibit development in the 4,400 sf modern metal structure added in 1972. The 1.7 acre site offers space for the Garden of Technology, parking, and geothermal wells to support a sustainable climate control system for the museum. Design and development of the site and building renovation is slated to begin in early 2010, with construction to begin in mid-2011, and the Tech Works! museum to open in 2013, pending timely success in fund raising. We anticipate financing building renovation with government grants, supplemented with support from foundations, corporations, and individuals for exhibits.
Next Steps Fall 2009 - 2010
The warehouse at 321 Water Street is adequate to house CT&I's collection of documents, photographs, and artifacts from Southern Tier industries, an estimated 25,000 cubic feet of material. The artifact collection includes increasingly rare 20th c. manufacturing equipment - Azon coating machine, IBM photo trace lab and printed-circuit testers, and E H Titchener wire-bending machines - as well as prototypes, products, and archives from A&J, Ansco/GAF, Doron, Botnick Manufacturing Company, Endicott Johnson, IBM, Rainbow Display, E H Titchener, trolley system, and others. The largest group of artifacts is from Link Aviation Devices - the Philpott Collection includes several 1940s vintage flight trainers, an extensive variety of spare parts (many in original packing), and 10 linear feet of instruction manuals. In Fall 2009, CT&I's artifact collection will be relocated from multiple storage locations to 321 Water Street. Collection inventory and cataloging is a priority effort in 2010.
In parallel, Tech Works! exhibits will be developed and tested at the workshop. Dynamic
displays of local technology in action will include, among others, an IBM Blood Cell
Processor, staple making equipment, an Azon air knife and a Link flight trainer.
How
You Can Help
- Share your stories, documents, and artifacts of Southern Tier industry.
- Volunteer to inventory documents and restore artifacts to working condition.
- Become a Door Opener with a donation to support operations before TechWorks! opens its doors.
Press & Sun Bulletin - 26 December 2009
To learn more, call 607 624-1090, email director@ctandi.org
