Fueling a New Mixed-Use Strategy

Evolving markets, emergent technologies, and shifts resulting from the sharing economy are fueling major disruptions that challenge past assumptions about developments. These changes warrant a new perspective on the role of mixed-use developments, once a collection of divergent uses, now a blurring of boundaries, thus convergent uses. 

Uses and users are increasingly dynamic and becoming more diverse than ever before, with healthcare, senior living, research incubation, and cultural uses a growing part of the traditional mix. With a multidisciplinary team of strategists, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, and site engineers all under the SmithGroup umbrella we do more than plan and design individual sites and buildings for mixed-use purposes. Our expertise allows us to uncover the essence of mixed-use and look holistically at a development’s linkages to its surrounding context, larger social and economic systems and potential disruptors, while also considering small-scale design interventions that provide major transformative impacts. The full benefit of these internal resources and our combined, convergent approach creates opportunities our clients never imagined.

As designers, we aspire to solve the issues that matter most to our clients. To advance this goal, SmithGroup established Client Advisory Boards — a unique platform for exploring ideas with organizations at the forefront of today’s most pertinent business challenges. From these provocative conversations, we align our design approach with future thinking infused by our clients’ perspective. Recently, we convened a group of developers, property managers, city planners and end-users in an engaging exchange of ideas. The focus of the conversation was Convergence: The Future of Development.

Click here to see what we learned from our interactive work session.