Larry Adams, the Co-Founding and Managing Partner of ACi Architecture was featured in April’s issue of I4 Business Magazine. Included in the article, Larry speaks to the ACi-UP Process for a New Economy:
New Approach for a New Economy
“Coupled with growing urbanization (by 2030, 120 million more people will be living in U.S. mega-regions), a phenomenon driven by connectivity, diversity, cultural amenities and jobs will be an equivalent desire for a more meaningful and quality sense of place. These factors combined with economic challenges at the federal level are producing a shift. More responsibility and opportunity for city leaders is within reach for new public-private cooperation and a thriving new economic development model that is local in purpose and design.
Their success speaks for itself as ACi has delivered, in the last three years, over $150 million in high-quality ad valorem value. These projects have transformed undeveloped or underdeveloped properties, which were in danger of becoming just another parking lot or another “commoditized anywhere USA” development, into distinctive destinations that provide layers of experiences, environments and civic identity, as well as being a vital economic stimulant.
Their approach, which they have dubbed ACi-UP, is a process cities are using to help take what Adams describes as “the brain damage” out of the development equation for the private sector. “ACi-UP looks first at how a city’s assets – their people, history, location and industries – can create a new gravity and utilize these key drivers of market differentiation. These are the elements that make their community who they are,” he explained. Adding, “There’s an old saying, ‘After you’ve tried everything else, be yourself.'””
