Yet another innovation and creation space is planned to open in the D.C. area early next year. TechShop, a Silicon Valley-based maker space with several locations around the country, announced today its plans to begin construction on a work space in Arlington later this fall. Located in Crystal City, the maker space will be modeled after other TechShop facilities as a "membership-based, do-it-yourself (DIY) creative workshop and fabrication studio."
While many co-working, innovative type spaces are mostly about coming together and working on digital technology, TechShop is all about the tools. After its launch, TechShop members will be able to access more than $1 million worth of machines, tools and equipment. Additionally, the location will feature classes each month and have a knowledgeable staff at its members' disposal. And though TechShop is a place to get dirty, break stuff and craft something truly remarkable, it also offers the community aspect that people need to think outside the box and network.
A huge initiative in TechShop's move here is partnering with the federal government and the armed forces.
“TechShop energizes local communities and economies because our members have the passion to actually build their dreams, whether they’re personal projects or startups. And we’re very excited to activate the makers of Crystal City and the larger Washington area,” Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, said in a press release. “We’re pleased to work with our government and development partners who made it possible to bring the tools of innovation to the people around our nation’s capital, and especially the programs designed to help men and women who have served in our armed forces.”
Currently, TechShop facilities offer offer veterans free memberships through GE’s Get Skills to Work coalition, which will be a huge pull for this area. Additionally, the maker spaces hold Skills Development Programs to help vets with advanced manufacturing, up-skilling and entrepreneurism. As of now, more than 1,200 veterans are taking advantage of the offer, and another 1,500 slots are supposed to open in 2014.
TechShop credits the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation (VACI) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with essential partnerships in getting the new space up-and-running in Arlington. According to Businessweek, DARPA is helping fund the creation of the D.C. location, as well as another in Pittsburgh, so that after the space is closed for the day, DARPA workers could infiltrate it at night to quickly work on a special project called iFab: "to design factories that can be reconfigured on the fly."
The maker space will be optimally located in Crystal City on Crystal Drive. The current plan is that TechShop Arlington will be open sometime during the first quarter of next year. This makes for some interesting news, given that ideaspace, another innovation-type maker space, will open sometime around then as well.
