k-MART reTHINK

Existing site with context

Conceptual site plan with context

Conceptual site plan
(click on image to enlarge)

What if K-Mart went out of business and the land was given back to the neighborhood?

The K-Mart site that occupies the southernmost boundary of Rochester’s downtown master plan is currently underdeveloped and underutilized.  The corner of 9^th Street SE and 3^rd Avenue SE has all the pedestrian scale and character of an airport parking lot.  The corner of Broadway and 9^th Street SE is more well known for the Liberty Tax guy who stands and waves at motorists or for the large bison that sometimes rests next to the Snappy Stop.  Meanwhile, across these streets lives a wonderful green space, park and connection to the City trail system as well as dense downtown core neighborhoods.  This site needs more than a good scrubbing and up-grade as the Miracle Mile strip mall underwent in 2008; it needs a complete re-think of what uses would be desired, what density can be sustained, and what pedestrian amenities should be considered. 

With a complete re-think of the site that stretches from Broadway to 3^rd Avenue and from 9^th Street to the edge of the AMPI plant—nearly 15 acres, almost 70% of which is parking lot—redevelopment could occur that stimulates economic growth and increased population density.  It seems as though developers would beg to get their hands on this piece of property, but the citizens of Rochester should expect to get something in return.  Here is the plan:

• Begin by imposing the abandoned city grid over the site.  This immediately illustrates the amount of space that is currently occupied by parking and drive aisles. 
• Once the block pattern is established, nicely landscaped complete streets with ample on-street parking attract street level activity and outdoor gathering spaces.
• On the blocks themselves, compact, multi-use, multi-story structures can provide commercial uses at grade with multi-family residential units filling the upper floors. 
• The existing K-Mart structure is retained and adaptively reused to become either a downtown grocery store, or several retail stores.  The back side of the store could be repurposed for loading if it continues to be a larger, single occupant store. 
• Along the north edge of the site, a greenway connection from the river to the neighborhood is established.  Without this artery, pedestrians are restricted from walking or biking directly from the nearby neighborhood to the riverfront. 
• Along Broadway, the strip mall that stretches along the railroad right-of-way could be vacated and all of those businesses could be spread across a number of other locations closer to the neighborhood that would be more likely to frequent them.  The vacated structure could then become a multi-  modal downtown transit hub.  Situated on the rail line and having bus, vehicular and bicycle traffic along Broadway, this location could provide much easier access from outlying areas to downtown and from downtown residences to other services accessed through mass-transit routes.  This transit hub could also serve as the trail head with a connection across Broadway at the 9^th Street intersection.

Overall, the site is more walkable, diverse, pleasant, and vibrant.  If the University of Minnesota Rochester campus settles across Broadway in the Urban Village, that puts this piece of property strategically located at the center of downtown residences and businesses.  Without a comprehensive vision for what this site could be uses for in the future, a private developer could create more piecemeal, fractured structures with little pedestrian access and domination by the personal vehicle.  Let us think about this…

…and let’s make the right decision.

Retail on Street, Hold the Mayo

Second St. SW and First Ave. SW intersection

Second Street Retail on Street

US Bank Building:  Corner Coffee Shop

201 Building:  Corner Entrance Atrium and Food Court

What would happen if all office space was vacated on the ground level of buildings surrounding the Second Street SW and First Avenue SW intersection?

This epicenter of activity for the Mayo Clinic, the Rochester Downtown Alliance's Urban Village, and Thursdays on First, is currently dominated by commerical office or unleased tenant space. In many cases, only one or two entrances into the peripheral buildings exist across the entire block. Additionally, the Second Street right-of-way spans 5-lanes of traffic and can be overwhelmed with vehicular and bus traffic.

The amount of latent energy that exists in this node of the downtown core is wasted on blank street facades and narrow concrete sidewalks in need of expansion and activation. The base of these buildings should relate to the human scale and allow for interaction between indoors and out. Ground floor uses and retail activities should spill out into the sidewalks and streets to blur the distinction between public and private space. Preferably, active ground floor uses that create enriched experiences along each street for both pedestrians and motorists. Sidewalk activity has been shown to slow vehicular traffic to make pedestrians feel safer when crossing the street.

Consider what might happen: the impact on Rochester's downtown core would be minimal, but the precedent that such an action would create could formalize additional development of the proposed Urban Village and University of Minnesota Rochester campus. We should be so lucky to have a downtown with complete streets that are vibrant, accessible, convenient to public transit, linked to surrounding neighborhoods, safer and healthier.