By Caleb Savage
After metalworker and sculptor Scott Van Campen’s workshop on coastal Staten Island was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, Scott and his wife DB Lampman began to rebuild with a sense of resilience and with the desire to do something positive for their community. An opportunity arose in the form of a grant offered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation for a small business incubator on Staten Island: the couple submitted a proposal, inspired by the communal workshops they saw on a trip to Thomas Edison’s laboratories in New Jersey, and received some city funding to transform Scott’s workshop into a shared community space.
Makerspaces, hackerspaces, and fab labs are popping up left and right both in and out of New York. They’re a part of the growing maker movement, which encourages people to invent and create. Makers can often be seen nerding out over…