Team Led by Columbia Kicks Off $45 Million NYC Regenerative Materials Innovation Hub

Sustainable materials–at the intersection of nature, science, and engineering–are the focus of a new state-of-the-art R&D and innovation hub, Gotham Foundry. Announced in June, the initiative has received $45 million in support from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and celebrated its official launch Sept. 22 during Climate Week NYC. Led by Columbia University, Gotham Foundry will operate in partnership with CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and the world’s first community biolab, Genspace.

The multi-institutional endeavor underscores NYCEDC’s ongoing commitment to foster deep tech startups and fuel next-generation innovation, and leverages Columbia Engineering’s extensive expertise in sustainable and novel materials. The innovation hub represents NYCEDC’s investment in deep tech startups, with Gotham Foundry particularly focused on the key New York sectors of fashion, construction, and health industries. The unique partnership between the city, public and private institutions, and community partners will include ramping up reskilling and upskilling opportunities for New Yorkers through workforce training programs and expanding the city’s green and deep tech economies. As a destination for material innovation, Gotham Foundry aims to serve as an open-source, open-door resource whose facilities and strategic network will enable the type of transformative and cross-industry collaborations that can revolutionize whole industries. 

Gotham Foundry will be directed by Columbia Engineering’s Helen Lu, Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia Engineering, professor of dental and craniofacial engineering (in Dental Medicine), along with co-directors Kate Ascher, the Paul Milstein Professor of Urban Development at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP); Theanne Schiros, co-director of GF and professor of materials science at FIT; Rein Ulijn, director of the CUNY ASRC Nanoscience Initiative and the Albert Einstein and distinguished professor of chemistry at Hunter College; and the executive director of Genspace, Dr. Casey Lardner.

Image

The Gotham Foundry Materials Innovation Team consists of 40+ engineering, architecture, design, and science faculty at Columbia, CUNY, and FIT, as well as the talented researchers, inventors, and students working with and collaborating across the wider materials community within the city and beyond. The Hub research program centers on developing regenerative materials with a circular lifecycle, biofabrication, green chemistry, and advanced manufacturing of sustainable materials. The Columbia Foundry faculty team includes Tal Danino, Oleg Gang, Shiho Kawashima, George Deodatis, Marianna Maiaru, Hod Lipson, James Hone, Scott Banta, Treena Arinzeh, Andrew Laine, Clark Hung, Ed Guo, and Kam Leong from Columbia Engineering; Harris Wang from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center; and David Benjamin from GSAPP.  

The unique Gotham Foundry multi-sector partnership will foster a broad and inclusive user community for material innovation with open access to state-of-the art resources and, most critically, materials innovation expertise, a turbocharged pathway to commercialization, and targeted workforce training for the circular materials economy. Key community partners and supporters of these efforts include Dan Wang, co-director of Columbia Business School’s Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change, Samuel Sia, and Christine Kovich, co-founders of Harlem Biospace; Ngozi Okaro, founder and executive director of Custom Collaborative; Janet Rodriguez, founder and CEO of SoHarlem; and Sunmoon Jang, executive director of Communitas Americas; the Partnership fund for NYC; and the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

At Gotham Foundry’s Sept. 22 launch event, leaders from across New York City gathered at Columbia’s Jerome L. Greene Science Center for the exciting debut, which included a biomaterials exhibition, a fashion show of bio-derived designs, and remarks from Gotham Foundry Director Helen Lu; Columbia University Provost Angela Olinto; Andrew Kimball, CEO of NYCEDC; Adolfo Carrión, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce; Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president, FIT; Rosemarie Wesson, associate vice chancellor and university vice provost for Research at CUNY; and Neena Chakrabarti, PhD, who spoke on behalf of Genspace; as well as Janet Rodriguez, founder and CEO of SoHarlem.

Community partners from Harlem Biospace and Communitas America were also in attendance, along with faculty from the Gotham Foundry Materials Innovation Team, a transdisciplinary network of engineering and science faculty at Columbia, CUNY, and FIT. 

The featured materials exhibit, “Regenerative Vision,” showcased the work of more than 30 start-ups and research teams, demonstrating the transformative power of regenerative materials and green manufacturing approach in the industries Gotham Foundry will initially target: fashion textiles, construction, and healthcare. The event closed with young designers from SoHarlem, an incubator for cultural industries, sporting green fashions they had created as part of their entrepreneurship program with legendary designer Dapper Dan.

Gotham Foundry is initially located at Harlem Biospace at the Mink building in West Harlem. Its permanent home will be in a new Columbia Engineering building on the Manhattanville campus—currently in planning, and set to break ground in 2027 and open in 2030.

“We are thrilled to launch the Gotham Foundry with our partners and the support of the NYCEDC, led by Professor Helen Lu, a true pioneer in regenerative materials,” said Shih-Fu Chang, Dean of Columbia Engineering. “We are looking forward to creating a leading hub for biofabrication and the circular economy as part of a growing innovation ecosystem in Upper Manhattan, bringing together our own history of breakthrough research in sustainability with other academic researchers, industry innovators, and community partners in job training and education.”

“A bold vision for our future is that all human-made products emulate nature’s circular life cycle by demonstrating desired performance and being fully regenerative or degradable at the end of service. Establishment of Gotham Foundry is a major step in fulfilling this vision,” said Lu. “We are so grateful to the NYCEDC for supporting this project and our partners for their ongoing collaboration and commitment. We are eager to seize this opportunity to build a more sustainable future through the promise of novel regenerative materials, while boosting the city’s economy and training a skilled future manufacturing workforce.”

Today, the global market for sustainable materials is valued at $358 billion and is expected to grow to $800 billion by 2032. Advancing innovation in sustainable and biomaterials has the potential to transform key industries that drive New York City's economy, from fashion and construction to plastics and medical supplies. Researchers at Columbia and partner institutions will collectively share their knowledge and rich expertise to bring new materials innovations to industry and consumers. Gotham Foundry will serve as an ecosystem for innovation to fuel a green economy, not just for R&D but to cultivate startups, for education, training, and workforce development, and to become the centralized space open to creators and designers who seek access to a state-of-the-art facility and its resources. 

Through its tightly integrated consortium, Gotham Foundry is redefining how infrastructure and commercialization efforts are coordinated. Gotham Foundry will leverage existing infrastructure at Harlem Biospace (for biofabrication and biocharacterization, technical consult, materials library, and training programs), ASRC (for advanced and complex materials characterization),  FIT (for fashion prototyping, production, and design), and Genspace (for workforce training).

The new hub is expected to generate $5.12 billion in economic output over the next three decades and will create career opportunities for New Yorkers, including through workforce training programs for entrepreneurs and students. It is supported by LifeSci NYC, the city’s $1 billion initiative to create 40,000 jobs over the next 10 to 15 years, and puts into action the city’s Green Economy Action Plan, a vision that integrates economic and talent development in this space. Gotham Foundry will leverage Columba’s established partnerships with its surrounding community to create opportunities for students and job seekers interested in learning skills for the green economy and to empower the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

Lead Photo Caption: From left to right: Kate Ascher, co-director of Gotham Foundry (GF) and professor of practice of urban development at Columbia; Rein Ulijn, co-director of GF and founding director of the CUNY ASRC Nanoscience Initiative; Helen Lu, director of GF and Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Theanne Schiros, co-director of GF and associate professor at FIT; and Neena Chakrabarti, board member at Genspace. 
Lead Photo Credit: Chris Taggart/Columbia Engineering