Month: September 2019

2019 DMC Annual Meeting focuses on opportunities, growth, future

With the newly opened One Discovery Square in the background serving as a symbol of its progress, civic and business leaders gathered outdoors Thursday, Sept. 19, for Destination Medical Center’s 2019 Annual Meeting and to celebrate the grand opening of One Discovery Square and the future Discovery Walk parkway, with a festive community celebration open to all.

Under a tent erected on a parking lot across from One Discovery Square, 400 guests enjoyed dinner and updates from a trio of key players in the DMC process. The speakers’ messages covered three broad themes: opportunity, growth and the future.

Rochester Childcare Center “Thriving” in Discovery Square

 

World-leading scientists and researchers aren’t the only ones contributing to the community in Destination Medical Center’s Discovery Square. Families at Thrive Childcare are embracing the “live, work, play” environment envisioned for the sub-district.

Christ United Methodist Church opened Thrive Childcare as a nonprofit organization last October. The space in the church’s lower level has six classrooms with the ability to serve up to 82 children. Volunteers also run a family resource center to help families with questions they have about parenting.

Tanya Goretzki, Executive Director of Thrive, says the majority of parents who take their children to Thrive work in the downtown area. This saves them time dropping off their children in the morning. It also provides peace of mind.

“For parents being able to walk out our door and see the building that they’re working in gives them this calm, especially for our infant families,” said Goretzki. “They pop in throughout the day if they can.”

WuXi Diagnostics to open its first research facility in the U.S. in One Discovery Square in Rochester, MN

WuXi Diagnostics announced today the plan to open its first U.S.-based research and diagnostic testing development facility in Rochester, Minnesota to accelerate esoteric diagnostic product development, and bring more personalized and accurate clinical diagnosis services for global patients.

The new facility is located in One Discovery Square, a new health technology and life sciences center in Rochester. The facility is expected to open before the end of the year and will serve as a center for clinical diagnostic testing optimization and development. WuXi Diagnostics’ researchers and technicians will leverage this facility to optimize existing diagnostic tests and to collaborate in the development of new diagnostic tests with Mayo Clinic’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, specifically its Advanced Diagnostics Laboratory.

Art + Design in Public Space Series: Essence of Art

The Heart of the City design team is pleased to invite you to join a panel discussion and conversation on the roles art and design play in creating vibrant public spaces.

This month’s topic will address how art in the public realm creates new dialogues around the essence of art beyond the form of art itself. Chicago-based artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and Heart of the City curator Hesse McGraw will lead the discussion.

Early in the conceptual development of Heart of the City, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle said, “I want to put sculpture to work.” His work exemplifies the civic-scale ambition and impact of art being commissioned for Peace Plaza. During this conversation, he and McGraw will discuss his expansive view of sculpture for the public realm and the essential artistic qualities that carry through complex public projects.

During his 30-year career, Manglano-Ovalle has been internationally hailed for technologically advanced works that crystalize our most confounding political and cultural narratives into iconic, beautiful form—a thundercloud, an iceberg, Mies van der Rohe’s architecture, or a simple town well. Manglano-Ovalle’s numerous awards include a United States Artists Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Foundation Award. He is noted in Rochester for his landmark 2006 survey exhibition at Rochester Art Center. See more here.

To reserve your space, register here. This event is free and open to everyone; however, space is limited.

Google to Open Rochester Office and Partner with Mayo Clinic to Accelerate Health Care Innovation

Courtesy: Mayo Clinic News Network

Mayo Clinic and Google have announced a 10-year strategic partnership that will redefine how health care is delivered and accelerate the pace of health care innovation through digital technologies.

Mayo Clinic selected Google Cloud to be the cornerstone of its digital transformation. Mayo will use advanced cloud computing, data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to redefine health care delivery, bringing together global providers and consumers to make health care better.

“Data-driven medical innovation is growing exponentially, and our partnership with Google will help us lead the digital transformation in health care,” says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. “It will empower us to solve some of the most complex medical problems; better anticipate the needs of people we serve; and meet them when, where and how they need us. We will share our knowledge and expertise globally while caring for people locally and always do it with a human touch.”

DMC Annual Meeting and Discovery Square Events to Highlight Growth in Rochester

On Thursday, September 19, several events will highlight Destination Medical Center’s progress in the community and its role as a catalyst for growth in Rochester. These events will all take place in the Discovery Square sub-district.

Yam Haus, Photo by Michael Becker

From 4-6 p.m., the community is invited to the grand opening of One Discovery Square, a 90,000 square foot healthcare innovation campus. A short presentation with remarks from community leaders will take place at 4:15 p.m. followed by a group photo. During the open house-style event, several One Discovery Square tenants, including Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota Rochester, Epic, Boston Scientific, and others will feature science on display through interactive demonstrations. Attendees can take a self-guided tour through the building and enjoy food and beverages from Café Steam and Flapdoodles. Minneapolis pop group Yam Haus will perform live music.

At the same time as the One Discovery Square celebration, the Discovery Walk Interactive Experience will provide the public an opportunity to begin visualizing the future of Discovery Walk, a linear parkway along 2nd Avenue SW that will connect the Heart of the City to Soldiers Field Park. Several interactive activities and prototypes will line Second Avenue NW between 4th and 5th Streets. For example, local artists will install a series of engaging art arches along the street, while a chalk artist will draw a 3D representation of what Discovery Walk may be like. These temporary installations will show the public what Discovery Walk could look like in the future as planning for the project continues.

University of Minnesota Rochester Students Prepare to Learn Alongside Health Care Giants

Fall classes have just begun at the University of Minnesota Rochester (UMR), and this semester, hundreds of students are taking a new route to class. They’ll be walking right by the offices of Mayo Clinic, Epic, Boston Scientific, and other industry-leading researchers.

UMR is joining these groups as an anchor tenant at One Discovery Square, a 90,000 square foot health care innovation campus in the Destination Medical Center (DMC) Discovery Square sub-district.

On the first floor, the university has a new common area for students, faculty, and staff centered around collaboration and flexibility.

“Those are the two words that really drove the way we designed the spaces,” said Dr. Jeffrey Ratliff-Crain, Vice Chancellor at UMR. “This building gives us that.”

Moveable couches, chairs, and tables lend themselves to group work and discussion. Dry erase boards cover most of the walls, allowing students and faculty to work through course material together.

UMR also has space on the third floor, including a classroom and a laboratory. Ratliff-Crain says this lab and its state-of-the-art equipment parallel much of Mayo Clinic’s professional lab space in the building. The third-floor classroom can be turned into another laboratory if more space is needed.

This kind of coexistence between students and industry professionals is exactly what DMC leaders have in mind for the Discovery Square subdistrict.