Minnesota Design Center (MDC)

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The Minnesota Design Center (MDC) engages in system design in Minnesota and the upper Midwest. We seek innovative solutions to the design of physical systems such as infrastructure and open space as well as non-physical systems such as public health or service delivery, helping our region seize the opportunities that lie in the social, technological, environmental, and economic disruptions of our time.

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Please join us for our next Empowering Small Minnesota Communities Project webinar, “Redeveloping Two Harbors Through Design and Consensus,” featuring Kjersti Duval, where we will explore how the City of Two Harbors mobilized to build consensus around a vision and create an actionable plan.

Kjersti Duval is a Partner and majority owner at Duval Companies, with over 25 years of experience in design and development focused on public interest projects. She previously served as Minneapolis Planning Director and has led major urban initiatives, including Downtown East Commons and the Dakota-led restoration at Owámniyomni. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, she also teaches urban design at the University of Minnesota and contributes nationally through the Mayors Institute on City Design.. Add this event to your calendar. 


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Featured Projects

Search for Shelter Proposal 2024

Director of the Minnesota Design Center (MDC), Thomas Fisher presented the MDC's Search for Shelter proposal for Minneapolis's K-Mart site to the Whittier Alliance neighborhood association.

Explore Our Projects

The MDC collaborates across disciplines through academic and industry partnerships to address system design issues in Minnesota. 

View our Work
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15th Anniversary Report

For 15 years, MDC has partnered with communities across Minnesota and the upper Midwest to find innovative solutions to our communities' most pressing design problems. Learn more about the research we have conducted, the partners we've worked with, and the results of our work in our 15th Anniversary Report.

Read the report