Rochester is growing – and that means there’s no shortage of work to go around.
DMC, the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, Mayo Clinic, the Diversity Council, the City of Rochester, and others want to make sure businesses owned by minorities, women, and veterans have access to that work.
That’s why the Chamber will be hosting a Supplier Diversity Summit & Business Expo on August 3rd at the Mayo Civic Center to connect small and diverse firms with companies and organizations with contract opportunities.
In the next two decades, Rochester leaders will face the largest public infrastructure decisions in the city’s history. In tandem with the Destination Medical Center initiative, about $1.8 billion in infrastructure projects are on the city’s near horizon.
Of the estimated $1.8 billion in infrastructure identified in the DMC Development Plan, about $720 million is targeted to create 16,000 new structure parking spaces; $348 million is envisioned to create a downtown transit circulator; and $112 million is planned for other transit, streets and city loop improvements, according to city documents.
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.
Public spaces are as integral to Destination Medical Center plans as the private development that will surround them, and the Rochester City Council is nearly ready to take a step ahead in designing those spaces.
The council at a Monday committee of the whole meeting discussed plans to advertise for public space design services, for the DMC subdistrict Heart of the City. The city would coordinate with the DMC Corp. Board to issue a request for proposals, said Gary Neumann, assistant city administrator.
The city of Rochester has closed on the $6 million purchase of the historic Chateau Theatre.
The theater purchase is considered a Destination Medical Center project, which allows the expense to count toward the city’s $128 million contribution for public infrastructure costs. The Mayo Clinic paid $500,000 of the deal.
Rochester City Council President Randy Staver said it’s still unclear what the building’s long-term use and financial model will be.
Lifelong Rochester resident and Mayo Clinic employee Rebecca Peterson has unique ties to the Chateau Theater on Peace Plaza: Her grandfather plastered the original cityscape inside the auditorium, and her father worked on a mid-century restoration.
Rebecca Peterson reflects fondly on the one-of-a-kind auditorium inside the Chateau Dodge Theatre, wading into childhood memories of stars twinkling overhead as she and her siblings settled in for a Disney triple feature. That was about 40 years ago, when First Street was still open to downtown traffic and the Chateau Theatre was in the regular business of showing movies.
“I remember just sitting there looking up at the stars,” Peterson said. “I probably didn’t get much out of the movie at all.”
“2013 was a huge year for Rochester, thanks in large part to the passing of the Mayo Clinic Destination Medical Center legislation,” reports KTTC-TV in a story posted Jan. 10, 2014.
“It was a project many in the state, including Gov. Mark Dayton, pushed hard to accomplish.
“Thursday, KTTC NewsCenter’s Daniel Wolfe sat down with the Governor to talk about the future of DMC.
“Dayton called the DMC initiative ‘transformative and priceless,’ and said that when we look back 15 years from now at the changes made to Rochester and Mayo Clinic, the project will clearly be one we’re glad we took on.
“The Governor also talked about the impact DMC will have on the way he’s perceived, once his term is complete.
“’I think it’s going to be the most significant legacy of my remaining one year or four years,’ Dayton said. ‘Mayo is so important to all of Minnesota, to our quality of life and the fact that they’re giving us this opportunity to do this enormously important expansion here in Minnesota and Rochester, rather than other places in the world, is just a tremendous opportunity.’
“Dayton went on to say there will no doubt be some kinks in development here and there, but the work to transform Rochester will be well worth it in the end.”
Barbara Porter moved to Rochester 22 years ago, vowing to make it her home. She’s been active in the community ever since. Listen to her thoughts on opportunities to make Rochester even better by getting involved in the Destination Medical Center.
Roger White, M.D., a Mayo Clinic expert in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest intervention, tells NBC Nightly News (Oct. 22, 2013) about the pioneering program that put defibrillators in every police car in Rochester, Minn. The program is saving lives because first responders no longer have to wait for the paramedics to begin life-saving care. “Whoever gets there fast enough is the one who saves the patient,” says Dr. White.
Previously in this blog I described the inherent qualities of urbanity. So if you are trying to reinforce or perhaps create from scratch that essence of being urban–what typifies the essence of a livable city–where should you begin?
I believe that to truly begin to embrace urban is to accept two rudimentary principles. Two vilified, egregious, “dirty” words of urban design. The first, simply stated, is that to achieve a rich urban fabric requires density. Now before you close this webpage or tear up this paper in disgust because I mentioned that dastardly “d” word, stop and think for a second about how population density leads to many other attributes of urban life that are desired. Why do you think a farmer’s market works? Furthermore, density can apply to much more than population (e.g. street widths, tree spacing, etc.) and I would argue that embracing the concept of density can help design the majority of component parts of the city system and produce results that far surpass expectations.
The second principle, and one that may be more difficult to explain, is diversity. A vague and catchall term, diversity ensures that everyone is represented, that one demographic is neither isolated nor compartmentalized, and that everyone has choice. Diversification and integration in all forms serve to achieve the larger goals of urban vitality. What I am not intending is to simply address ethnic diversity, which often is the first thing to come to mind. While that is a part of population diversity, it is far too specific. Rather it means having a Rochester Symphony Orchestra & Chorale concert on the same night as the Americana Showcase. Different strokes, for different folks.
Ultimately, our pursuit of the great city experience that exists in the pages of the Rochester Downtown Master Plan as well as the illustrations found on countless webpages and blogs is not difficult to achieve. What it takes is a fierce determination; a vigilant battle against the outdated planning doctrine of the latter 20th Century and promotion of the settlement style growth patterns that are inherent in cultures all across the globe. It is about making a public place out of empty space. It is about overcoming fear of the word density because it evokes images of slums and high-rises and understanding the word diversity without picturing scary people lurking in the shadows.
We all can do a better job of embracing urban, and if DMC desires to increase the vitality and livability of downtown Rochester, then get ready to drop a whole lot more “d” words in public.
What is it about density that is so scary? Why does diversity connote societal ills? Join the conversation by commenting below.
Adam Ferrari is an architect and the Director of the non-profit Design Rochester. Podcasts of the radio show “Design with a Capital D” can be found on www.thecobbradio.com
Rochester, and others want to make sure businesses owned by minorities, women, and veterans have access to that work.
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.
The city of Rochester has closed on the $6 million purchase of the historic Chateau Theatre.
