Minnesota Design Team (MDT) is visiting the town of Henderson, Minnesota, on October 6–9, 2022. 

A wonderful small, historic community—population under 1,000—located on the Minnesota River between Le Sueur and Belle Plaine, Henderson has a great main street and hosts classic car “Roll-ins” every Tuesday during the summer. Henderson is home to the Henderson Hummingbird Garden and the Minnesota New Country School. The local visit committee is highly engaged, well organized, and looking forward to our visit!

The community has invited the Minnesota Design Team to help them address three challenges:

– Assess the impact of proposed highway improvements (State Highway 19 and the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway) on the community and suggest community responses to leverage this construction to their benefit
– Outline strategies to increase the availability of all types of life-cycle housing and address the challenges of a community that has many commuters
– Propose design and policy ideas that support a vibrant tourism industry, community amenities, and a sustainable downtown

The community is also challenged by its location on the river bottom on the banks of the Minnesota River. Their growth opportunities are up the hill to the west and upstream/downstream on the river.

Henderson has asked us to field a team of 15 or so volunteers. This will allow us and them to focus on these challenges without straining the local resources (host families). We are particularly interested in team members with the following expertise: main street architecture and preservation, placemaking and landscape architecture, housing solutions, recreation planning, tourism and community development, and community planning.

If you are interested in joining us for the visit, please complete the application found here.

We will need to be intentional about team makeup for this visit and will review applications based on the community’s requests. The final composition and notification of the visit team is expected to be determined by the week of September 5, 2022.

Questions: Please contact Hans Muessig, Allied AIAMN, Candace Dow, or Beth Evanson Makhoul, AIA (visit co-leads).