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 (ESMC) project webinar: Using Geographic Information System (GIS) to Guide Emerald Ash Borer Management in a Small Community.

Hear from Eric E. Castle, a landscape architect and associate professor on the Crookston campus, where he teaches design, art, planning, and GIS. His presentation focuses on an action research project that developed a community-engaged, GIS-supported Emerald Ash Borer management plan to guide risk-based tree removal and resilient replanting in Mahnomen, Minnesota. Add this event to your calendar

ESMC Webinar | Using GIS to Guide Emerald Ash Borer Management in a Small Community
Date: Thursday, Apr 16
Time: 12:00 PM CT
Click to join the zoom event

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. 

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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.