Illustrations for Urban Design Concepts in Minnesota

I am showing two urban design renderings in this article that I created recently.  I was commissioned by Van Meter Williams Pollack Architects in collaboration with the Hennepin County Planning Grants Program of Minnesota.  These are the kind of drawings that attempt to capture a designer’s intentions without the benefit of having the time to work out all of the details.  In the architect’s own words:  “In order to effectively communicate proposals for complex urban design vision, vibrant and easily-understandable imagery is necessary. The challenge is that there is not much solid content for the render to use as a foundation. Jeffrey works with minimal guidance and answers to a few trenchant questions to produce detailed images evoking the exact sense of place that we are attempting to achieve in our work.  “Of course, if the project is funded, then the design work begins in earnest, and the project–and the architect’s design–moves from mere concepts to actual buildings and public spaces.  So for the preliminary drawings you see here, a simple SketchUp model is used to generate the perspective, and the rest is “sketched over” by me, using general directions from the architect/urban designer.  The water tower and some of the buildings shown here are currently there on the site.  The idea was to dress up the water tower with painted graphics and special lighting elements.  Some other existing buildings either remain as they are now, others are re-purposed to better serve the community.  Much of what we are trying to convey with these renderings is the street and sidewalk life, wide walking and biking paths, street trees, lampposts, outdoor dining and seating, streets that share limited driving with pedestrians, etc.  The bottom view shows a generous connection with and existing Trailhead that’s popular with the public now.  The whole idea is to revitalize a small urban area that is not living up to its potential presently.  I have created many of these conceptual images over the years for many communities across the U. S.