Imagine Rochester 2020...

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Marcia Morphy

As part of a design-thinking class, students surveyed and assessed the current landscape of Rochester, interviewed entrepreneurs and visionaries, and projected their findings into three-dimensional vignettes that describe what Rochester will look like 10 years from now.

In the year 2020, what will Rochester look like? Will urban centers thrive?

There’s a new business district in the Max Lowenthal Hall lobby of RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business, and it’s called Imagine Rochester 2020.

The exhibit is all part of a design-thinking class (visiting lecturer Xanthe Matychak) where students surveyed and assessed the current landscape of our city, interviewed entrepreneurs and visionaries, and projected their findings into three-dimensional vignettes that describe what Rochester will look like 10 years from now.

Check out how revitalized urban life will affect community values, environmental health and job creation:

• Health Beyond the Hospital: Rochester’s health care expands into a preventative, comprehensive, community-wide health initiative

• The Food Economy: Urban consumers gain access to healthy foods by connecting to local farmers and food producers (Good Food Collective and Foodlink)

• New Business, New Downtown: Reasonable cost of living attracts potential for businesses big and small to thrive downtown (Paetec)

• Human Centered Transport: Moving groups of people within an urban community by means of ride sharing transport to lessen traffic congestion

• High-Speed Rail: Update and revamp the rail system to allow for people to travel economically in and out of Rochester

• A Greener Skyline: Increase alternative energy such as wind turbines in and around the city for both industrial and domestic use

• Pop-up Shops: Venues for artists, food services and entrepreneurs of all breeds to set up a pop-up shop—eliminating financial constraints of location and overhead

• Communication Technologies: Changes, Innovations and Impacts on Lifestyles: Shift alienation communication trend to bring people face to face

• Gardens in the Sky: Urban rooftops will be transformed into sources of food and energy through rooftop gardens, rainwater collection facilities and windmills

• Re-purposing Rochester: Renovate, rejuvenate and repurpose industrial buildings such as the Kodak manufacturing plant on Lake Avenue

Imagine Rochester 2020 also invites visitors to add to the exhibit by visiting the Design it Yourself table to create and install a piece of Rochester’s future.