Penn Executive Vice President Craig R. Carnaroli talks development, taxes and tech

Edited, July 4, 2011, 10:08 a.m.: Carnaroli was elected on June 10, not during the third week of June.

We’re not sure when Craig Carnaroli sleeps.

He’s Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania, he’s Chair of the University City District and he serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, Penn Medicine, and The Connelly Foundation.

Whatever free time he might have had will be partially eaten up by his new role as Chairman of the Board of the University City Science Center, after being elected to the position on June 10.

Now, the Wharton alum says that he’s leveraging his roles to strengthen Penn’s relationship to the rest of University City, and helping to create connections across the various institutions.

And a big part of that connection is physical. Carnaroli led the development of Penn Connects master plan, which he says will help bring together the institutions through the built environment of University City and West Philadelphia, with initiatives like Penn Park.

We spoke to Carnaroli by phone to talk about how the built environment can ultimately impact Philadelphia’s technology community, and more, after the jump.

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Microsoft Technology Center shows off sales-driven, corporate coworking space

The server display center gave off a neon glow in the lobby of Microsoft Technology Center in Malvern.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

On the whole, if you have a job that has a physical office space, you are more interested in working from home, or the coffee shop or some other suitable environment for a change of pace than a generation ago.

The annual Work without Walls survey from Microsoft and Ipsos Public Affairs has taken to ranking how well adjusted employers in big American cities are to teleworking.

Philadelphia ranked twelfth out of the fifteen cities surveyed, coming out ahead of Los Angeles, Detroit and Chicago, with 55 percent of the companies in the Philadelphia region allowing some kind of remote working for employees. Atlanta was the most well adjusted city to teleworking, according to the survey.

This movement toward shared space — both to cut business costs and feed employee desires for more flexible work options — is something Microsoft sees as an opportunity. Back in March, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Governor Tom Corbett opened the Microsoft Technology Center in Malvern. The company now has a dozen of these in the country and that many internationally. That backdrop brought Technically Philly to the space: something of a suburban, sales-driven, corporate coworking office, with more resources at a greater price, tucked inside a sleek and modern 17,500 square foot facility.

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Steve Ballmer, Tom Corbett open Microsoft Technology Center in Malvern (no, not Philly)

Tom Corbett and Steve Ballmer look at computers in Malvern.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett led the ribbon cutting opening the Microsoft Technology Center in Malvern.

[Ballmer joined Corbett] to officially open the Philadelphia Microsoft Technology Center, a state-of-the-art facility designed to help companies throughout the mid-Atlantic region improve their use of technology to grow their businesses, add jobs, and strengthen their local communities… The 17,500 square foot facility, located in Malvern, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia, is provides access to Microsoft technologies and support staff who will work with companies in the region to envision, architect and demonstrate secure, customized solutions based on Microsoft and partner technologies, anything from cloud computing to business productivity infrastructure optimization.

We love the region, we love Malvern, but can’t we agree that investing in the future is investing in cities, like, Philadelphia and not, uhm, Malvern? As Peter Key from the Philadelphia Business Journal points out, nearby financial services giant Vanguard is happy, with some 22,000 Microsoft workstations. Maybe they’ll take the El there.