Restorative Urban Design: Rondo Neighborhood Multiphase Project: 2019 - Present

Yorth Group was retained by Reconnect Rondo for the assessment and design of a restorative and circular economic district to drive long-term economic security and prosperity for local residents and businesses. 

Yorth’s proprietary Circular Insights™ platform was used to assess the economic losses that occurred in the Rondo neighborhood following the I-94 construction in the 1950s, when 700 homes were demolished, and 300 businesses were shuttered or torn down, leading to an outflux of residents, community, and intergenerational wealth that reverberates today. The actions taken began a decades-long path of disinvestment and socioeconomic degradation in the neighborhood. 

The goals for Reconnect Rondo include neighborhood reconnection, affordable housing, equitable development, public health/green space, and community leadership. A key element of the plan is the Rondo land bridge, a “cap” over Interstate I-94 for several blocks, realizing a physical connection for the neighborhood.  

Yorth Group is developing a restorative roadmap that integrates public and private resources within closed-loop systems under a circular economic strategy. This project is designed to deliver social, economic, and environmental health in a restorative, net-positive, and profitable manner for all participating entities by breaking down traditional industry silos and building a collaboration of businesses, utilities, housing, education, and training that maximizes resources, minimizes waste, drives sustainability, and creates new jobs at higher wages. 

Deliverables:

• Business case for actions and investments in this neighborhood, highlighting how industrial symbiotic infrastructure, specific business integration, and integrated utility management systems will help reduce and eliminate costs while generating over $150 million of new economy annually 

• Design of circular business models and ecosystems: 

• Circular economic and integrated energy, water, digital, and material management infrastructures

• Net-zero mobility 

• Business partnerships 

• Stakeholder partnerships between industry and government

• Governance system that manages resources at a local level through an industrial symbiotic design

• Comprehensive plan for the land bridge to accelerate a restorative economic transition

• Training businesses and industry on how to benefit from the circular ecosystem and gain a voice in the regulatory compliance process