Akron Core City Vision Plan

Akron, Ohio

Akron is a city with a rich history, a committed civic leadership and a wealth of cultural and natural assets. As the city emerges from a period of decline, it has looked to new anchors, including the University of Akron and three major medical institutions that have established positions in major growth areas of medicine and higher education.

In order to put forth a new vision for the core city, the University Park Alliance, a community development corporation sponsored by the Knight Foundation, and the City of Akron’s major medical and educational institutions, chose EE&K to develop a plan to leverage the activities of the Core City’s key stakeholders for the maximum benefit of the City, and help each advance its own respective plan. The plan sought to identify new opportunities and solutions that none of the core city’s key institutions, such as Children’s Hospital, Akron General Hospital, Summa, and The University of Akron, would have pursued individually. The plan combines a big picture vision for the city’s future with pragmatic strategies for implementation. By doing so, four new mixed-use urban districts have been created that are anchored by three key catalyst projects, each built around public-private-institutional partnerships.