Design for Refugees

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has an exhibit up over the summer entitled “Solution or Utopia? Design for Refugees” that features 50 proposals by architects and designers addressing the needs of the 60 million refugees around the world displaced from their homes. While most of the proposals involve industrial design and graphic design (including a proposal for “Refugees Welcome” cards and window stickers by Minneapolis designer Mike Davis of Burlesque Design), I found the one urban design proposal the most intriguing: a new city-state called Europe in Africa (EIA) built on an artificial island on a shallow part of the Mediterranean between Tunisia and Italy, designed by the Amsterdam architectural firm TD, with a model by Studio KU+. This city at sea would provide a secure place for refugees to land and stay as they awaited assimilation into another country, showing how urban design can help save lives as well as offer practical, buildable solutions to some of our most pressing global problems. Tom Fisher

Post Office and Falls District

The recent closure of Minneapolis’ Upper St. Anthony Lock and Dam has changed the character of the Mississippi River in this central location, from an active barge shipping facility to a closed "pool" above St. Anthony Falls, which has prompted us to consider new uses.  The reuse of the adjacent downtown Post Office offers an opportunity to support this new public life along Minneapolis’ Central Mississippi Riverfront, which will be a delightful destination that reconnects the city to the Mississippi River.  MDC is supporting this vision in two ways.  First, we prepared the Downtown Minneapolis Post Office Revitalization Preliminary Research report in 2016 that looked at post office reuse precedents across the country, the Central Riverfront Framework, and specific site characteristics.  Second, through the College of Design, I will teach a graduate Urban Design Studio fall semester 2017 that will explore possibilities for the river district’s new public life, and the various ways the historic Post Office can support that program.  The work generated by the Studio will be displayed publicly and used to promote and inform the broader community about one of Minneapolis’ great places.  Tim Griffin

Destination Medical Center

MDC is supporting Rochester, Minnesota’s dramatic Destination Medical Center initiative through design thinking and urban design assistance.  Under the banner of becoming the healthiest city in America, we are helping to define the needs of the Rochester “Community,” its residents, employees, medical patients and their companions. As the home of the internationally recognized Mayo Clinic and a growing population, it is critical that the city provide public amenities and facilities that support new development and preserve existing special places.  We are generating process and design ideas that will directly translate their unique population needs into a healthier community in which to live.  We are also testing these ideas through community conversations and public realm prototyping. Based on this growing understanding of the community's needs and aspirations, we have developed guidelines to advance projects and tools, like the model of downtown Rochester, to help residents visualize the magnitude of change underway.  Tim Griffin