Tag: HGA

Heart of the City: Where healthcare meets hospitality

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Progress continued in the Heart of the City today as the Community Advisory Committee made its recommendation for the team charged with designing the DMC sub-district’s public space.

HeartOfTheCityThat recommendation is RSP Architects, a Minneapolis-based architectural firm with offices in Rochester, Phoenix, and other locations, and includes Coen Partners (Twin Cities), which will serve as lead landscape architect; 9.Square (Rochester), which will provide urban design, architecture, planning, and community engagement; HR&A Advisors (New York), which will provide open space development, management, and strategy services; and Kimley-Horn (St. Paul and Rochester), which will provide civil engineering, transportation, and DMC plan continuity.

Urbanization in Rochester

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Rendering: Heart of the City

Metropolitan areas are growing faster than the country as a whole. In fact, it is estimated that 86% of Americans will live in a metro area in 2016.

With the anticipation of adding about 35,000 additional jobs in Rochester over the next 20 years as part of the DMC plan, a surge in urbanization, which is the increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas, is highly likely.

There are a number of factors driving this urban growth, not the least of which is an innate desire for humans to be connected to one another. “We are social beings by nature. Even introverted people want to feel a sense of community,” says Lindsey Meek, civil engineer, neighborhood leader for the Downtown Neighborhood Association, and downtown resident.