The Rochester City Council has approved the membership of the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) that will assist with public space design for the Heart of the City DMC sub-district at the intersection of First Street SW and First Avenue SW.
Heart of the City will serve as the gateway to other DMC sub-districts and unite Mayo Clinic with commercial, hospitality, retail, and residential sectors.
The 14-member CAC is a collaboration between the city of Rochester and DMC. It will be co-chaired by Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede and Executive Director of Generation Next and former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, both current members of the DMC Corporation board of directors.
“The CAC members include community members from diverse backgrounds and a broad range of professionals from all age demographics and geographic locations in the community,” says Brede.
The initial appeal for volunteer committee members the importance of including business and property owners, civic leaders, citizen at-large members, partner organizations, design experts, a City Council representative, and a Chateau Theatre Task Force representative.
“On behalf of the DMC Corporation board of directors, we are delighted to welcome the members of the Community Advisory Committee,” says Rybak. “This is a very important phase for the Heart of the City, as it extends and enhances the Peace Plaza to create active experiences and engaging gateways to other DMC sub-districts downtown. Our goal is to create public space where truly everyone is welcome and everyone wants to be.”
Initially, the CAC will be responsible for the selection of a qualified firm to assist with the design for the public spaces of Heart of the City. Once the firm has been selected, the CAC will be responsible for communication, community engagement, collaboration on design concepts, and reporting key milestones to the DMCC board and city of Rochester throughout the 2016 design process.
“We are very encouraged by the tremendous response from qualified individuals who expressed interest,” says Mayor Brede. “We look forward to working with the CAC and invite community members to remain involved once the design process begins.”
CAC members include:
- Javon Bea, Property Owner
- Jenna Bowman, Rochester Downtown Alliance & Chateau Theatre Reuse Task Force
- Nick Campion, Rochester City Council Member
- Gail Eadie, Architect, Mayo Clinic
- Ahmed Elkhalifataha, Oxford Property Management
- Tom Fisher, Metropolitan Design Center, University of Minnesota
- Jeanine Gangeness, Winona State University
- Tom Hexum, Property Owner
- Stephen Lehmkuhle, University of Minnesota Rochester
- Nick Moucha, Downtown Neighborhood Association
- Sunny Prabhakar, The Commission
- Sandhya Pruthi, Medical Director, Patient Experience, Mayo Clinic
- Taylor Ridderbusch, Rochester Area Builders
- John Wade, Business Owner