Hermosillo to be documented as successful case study by Harvard Graduate School of Design
- Study on the results of the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative in cooperation with NADB and IDB
- Results to be demonstrated in Harvard course
Hermosillo, Sonora – As part of the implementation of the Emerging and Sustainable Cities (ESC) methodology jointly being carried out by the North American Development Bank (NADB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Hermosillo, Sonora, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) today launched the development of the study “Rethinking Hermosillo – Future Vision of the City,” which consists of an urban analysis of the city to identify individual projects that can be developed and executed in the short and medium term.
In an event presided over by Hermosillo Mayor Manuel Acosta Gutiérrez; Mexico IDB representative Verónica Zavala; NADB Acting Deputy Managing Director Calixto Mateos; IDB ESC Program Coordinator for Mexico, Diego Arcia; and Lupita Peñuñuri, Director of the city’s urban planning institute, Instituto Municipal de Planeación Urbana de Hermosillo, details about the study were presented, which will be performed over a period of three months by Harvard University students and professors. The results of this collaboration among the three institutions will serve to complement and help guide Hermosillo’s action plan in the areas of urban development, housing and land use, as well as create a vision for the future and redirect the transformation of the city towards sustainable development environmentally, economically and socially. “This study will yield important results regarding the implementation of the ESC methodology in Hermosillo, and will allow us to use them as an example for creating new cooperative opportunities with other border cities,” stated Dr. Mateos. “We congratulate the City of Hermosillo for this collaborative undertaking with NADB, IDB and GSD and for being an example of success on the border.” Upon completion, the study will be turned into a course entitled, “Emerging Urbanism: Designing Visions for the City of Hermosillo, Mexico,” which will be offered at Harvard in the summer of 2017. In addition, the results of the initiative will be published jointly in a Harvard magazine, as well as provide an opportunity for reciprocal academic collaboration between NADB and GSD.