Rochester Minnesota is world-renown as a place of healing. The Mayo Clinic, as the state’s largest employer attracts visitors from around the globe. However, the city’s waterfront as one of six Destination Medical Center sub-districts leaves much to be desired. Bike paths follow the course of the Zumbro River, but a channelized condition blocks views and inhibits connections between the downtown and the water’s edge.
The riverfront plan benefits from a wide spectrum of engagement techniques that leverage the site’s strategic location downtown. New mixed-use development anchors and activates key public spaces that link to downtown view corridors. Higher density development is setback from existing, historic structures and modifications to the river channel increase capacity and flow at the bend or the river while creating a series of terraced gardens and gentle sloping ramps.
The plan for the five acres of riverfront redevelopment is currently moving towards a preferred scenario.
- SWA Group
- NEOO Partners
- omloop
- City of Rochester
- DMC
Redevelopment Spectrum
Buildings have many lives, and while uses change a building’s form can endure. A series of redevelopment alternatives were explored for two Depression-era buildings along the riverfront, including their implications for adaptive reuse. There was a strong community preference for the inclusion of space in the plan for local entrepreneurs, artisans and makers which suggests adaptively reusing the buildings for contemporary needs as opposed to wholesale demolition.