Rochester Inner Loop North Mobility & Development Strategy Rochester, New York

Services Provided

Downtown & Multimodal Planning
Engagement
Urban and Public Realm Design

People Involved

Chris Hermann
Sean Hare
Elika Ghavvas

Envisioning a post-highway future for Rochester’s Downtown core with a focus on equity, community building, and placemaking

The Inner Loop North is the remaining portion of Rochester’s downtown circulator highway that is subject to be removed and transformed into an at-grade network of gridded city streets in the next several years. This study is focused on creating a strategy for development opportunities, open space improvements, and mobility enhancements along this corridor following this radical transformation. The project has involved coordination with a multi-disciplinary team, a parallel engineering design process for the Inner Loop North’s transformation, and multiple citizen and stakeholder committees.

The future of the corridor will include a wide variety of uses, open spaces, multi-modal improvements and key placemaking interventions. However, the challenge of this project comes from competing interests and viewpoints on what exact uses and improvements should be made.

The project includes a preferred concepts for development opportunities, open space and mobility improvements across the corridor. The concepts balance sensitivity to existing contextual uses and urban form, stakeholder sentiment, and market potential. The plan’s final deliverables will also include implementation strategies with an emphasis on land disposition strategies, combating gentrification, and ensuring equity in transportation, public space, and new development.