The American Tobacco Factory shut down manufacturing in Durham in 1987. For years this space sat idle and deteriorating.
But in 2004, Glaxo moved in as the first tenant of the new American Tobacco Historic District. It is now the home of architecture firms, tech companies, restaurants, ad agencies, and WUNC's Durham studios. Durham's fortunes have made a turn for the better in the last several years, and a few weeks ago, there was a study of the top creative class cities in America. Durham came out on top. What is the creative class and how did Durham come out on top? Host Frank Stasio explores these questions with Richard Florida, a senior editor at The Atlantic, a professor at the University of Toronto and New York University, and Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management; Kevin Stolarick, the research director of the Martin Prosperity Institute; and Gary Kueber, the CEO of Scientific Properties.
