Integrated Utility Design for Minneapolis Transit-Oriented District

PROJECT SUMMARY

RIV’s Joshua Foss was contracted to develop restorative infrastructure plans for an 80-acre parcel within Minneapolis/St Paul’s Towerside Innovation District in support of its goal of becoming a replicable model for urban living. A customized integrated utility system (IUS) was designed to demonstrate how the district could use closed-loop, integrated systems to become more resilient, resource secure, and economically competitive.

A report incorporated a site-based schematic IUS design and included infrastructure siting, a financial proforma, finance strategies, ownership and implementation pathways, and opportunities, benefits, and barriers relating to key local Twin Cities’ stakeholders.

The IUS design and subsequent report inspired the vision of the district to aspire beyond incremental and green development goals and aim for more aspirational Net Positive performance targets. It also garnered recognition in the media as ‘the most resilient neighborhood plan in America’.