Fuse at Mason Square - Quarterly Fuseletter (Fall 2022)

Quarterly Fuseletter

Fall 2022

Welcome to our quarterly Fuseletter.

Fuse at Mason Square will create a peerless innovation experience by providing unparalleled access to one of the largest tech talent pipelines in Virginia and to industry-influenced research. At the center of Arlington’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, Fuse will be the catalyst for digital innovators, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collide, interact, and thrive. By integrating collaborative labs, workspaces, and proactive and curated programming, Fuse will promote the exchange of new ideas and the transfer of technology between Mason’s researchers and students and industry partners to accelerate the development of digital innovation.

Fuse brings together the public and private sectors in a collaborative alliance to solve the challenges of tomorrow. The project is being developed under a public-private partnership with Mason Innovation Partners, led by Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate.

The new facility officially broke ground in April 2022. Since then, our construction team has been hard at work delivering the new building, which is scheduled for delivery in Summer 2024.

We’re excited to share our progress as we work to bring this vibrant new hub for digital innovation to life. Our quarterly newsletter, or Fuseletter, if you will, serves to provide the Arlington community and key stakeholders with important updates on all things Fuse.

Future newsletters will include information about programming and research in the new building, spotlights on the firms and individuals delivering the project, including small, minority, and women-owned businesses, key design and construction milestones, and exciting announcements about new private tenants.

George Mason University & Mason Innovation Partners

What’s inside?

The 345,000-square-foot facility will house faculty and students working with the Institute for Digital Innovation (IDIA) and graduate programs from Mason’s new School of Computing alongside industry partners.

Fuse at Mason Square will include: an agile design to accomodate technology, program, and research changes, specialized labs for robotics, VR, simulation, security, and data visualization, ample convening space, including a doubleheight atrium, a public plaza for retail and outdoor public programming, and below-grade parking

Spotlight on Dr. Duminda Wijesekera

Dr. Duminda Wijesekera is the Chair of Mason’s Cyber Security Engineering Department, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University, and Director of the Innovation Lab in the pilot space at Mason Square.

What is he most looking forward to when Fuse opens? “...a modern collaborative research and teaching space where faculty members, students and industry can collaborate without artificially placed boundaries, where faculty and researchers have the opportunity to contribute and are offered resources and recognition for their contributions.”

Click here to read more about Dr. Wijesekera and his work.

Over August and September, Mason hosted over 40 free events on the plaza, drawing nearly 1,000 attendees from the community.

Visit masonsquare.gmu.edu/ events to learn about upcoming events!

Popular Plaza Programming at Mason Square Continues

From weekly dance classes to large-scale special events, the plaza at Mason Square is buzzing with activity every day of the week!

When Fuse at Mason Square opens, the plaza will continue to be a central gathering place with curated programming and events for George Mason University, industry partners, and the community to interact and collide.

Mason Square in Full Force at Clarendon Day

Representatives from Mason Innovation Partners and George Mason University engaged with the Arlington community at Clarendon Day in September, providing information about Fuse and current programming on the plaza at Mason Square.

Mason provided free parking for Clarendon Day attendees and hosted a free concert on the plaza for the community to enjoy.

Mason IT Students Provide Community Organizations with Refurbished Laptops

Mason recently presented laptop computers refurbished by George Mason University IT students Judy Yang, Dennis Amoah and Sital Luitel to the following Arlington nonprofits:

The event was presented by Mason’s Institute for Digital Innovation and Virginia Star: Virginia Alliance for Technology Refurbishing and Reuse, a program that teaches students to refurbish computer hardware.

Mason Innovation Partners Team Volunteers with PathForward

In September, members of the Mason Innovation Partners team assembled one hundred bagged meals to be distributed to local community members experiencing homelessness through PathForward’s Outreach and Day Program. Distributing meals allows for one-on-one touchpoints that help provide street outreach, medical services, and mental health professionals the opportunity to build trust that is critical to moving individuals from streets to stability.

Our team appreciated learning more about PathForward’s mission and having this rewarding opportunity to give back to the community. For more information about PathForward, including information on how to volunteer, visit pathforwardva.org.

Fuse at Mason Square Team Shares Approach at National P3 Higher Education Conference

In October 2022, the Fuse team hosted a panel discussion at the P3 Higher Education Summit in Washington, DC. The panel, “Fuse at Mason Square: A Unique Innovation Development Approach,” discussed how the public and private sector are working together to bring academic education and research and commercial space together to create a peerless innovation experience. The panel was moderated by Jennifer Taylor, President and CEO of Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) and speakers from the project team included Carol Kissal (George Mason University); James Hennessy (Harrison Street); Brian Naumick (Edgemoor); Rob McClure (EYP/Page); and Andy Klaff (Newmark).

Strittmatter Companies is one of the small businesses making a big impact at Mason Square. Founded in 1978, they remain a familyowned and operated business proudly employing 255 staff.

Strittmatter’s work was crucial to preparing the building’s foundation. First, they imported dirt to build a bench to allow the support of excavation team to sit at street grade to install piles to hold back the dirt from excavation (top photo). Then, they removed roughly 21,000 cubic yards of dirt from the existing site to get to the subgrade of the new building. Once the new culvert was complete, they demolished the existing culvert that ran under the old building (bottom photo). Strittmatter will be back on site later to work on sidewalks and hardscapes.

Their favorite part of working on Fuse? “Partnering with the team at Clark Construction and having the privilege to be involved in a project that will further education and tech talent in Virginia.”

SWaM

Business

Spotlight: Strittmatter

Replacing Antiquated Storm Infrastructure On-Site

The original Kahn’s Department store located on the site of Fuse at Mason Square had a stormwater conveyance culvert that ran under the building. There were two different reinforced concrete pipes connecting to either side of the project site underneath the FDIC plaza on the west edge of the site and through the George Mason University Van Metre Hall Parking Garage on the east edge of the site. The stormwater pipes were constructed in early 1950’s and were undersized for current environmental and stormwater regulation standards, therefore they needed to be replaced and upsized before the rest of the development could begin.

After the Kahn’s Department Store building was demolished, Mason Innovation Partners, in conjunction with Dewberry Engineers and Clark Construction, re-designed the culvert to match current environmental and stormwater standards. This required precise coordination with the future building foundation design and intricate sequencing to ensure safety and quality as water was diverted from the old culvert pipes to the new 12’ wide x 6’ high box culvert. The switchover to the new box culvert was completed in August 2022, with demolition of the old culvert pipes and re-opening of FDIC plaza finishing in September 2022.