Enriching community life

WSB’s urban design services blend creativity, planning, and engineering to create vibrant, people-centered places. As a leading urban design firm, we collaborate with communities to enhance public spaces, streetscapes, and infrastructure, ensuring they are functional, inclusive, and visually compelling. Our multidisciplinary approach considers history, human behavior, sustainability, and economic growth to design spaces that enrich daily life and foster strong connections between people and their environment.

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SERVICES

Our experts specialize in

Public Space & Streetscape Design

We transform streets, plazas, and public spaces into dynamic environments that encourage interaction and enhance community identity.

Urban Redevelopment & Revitalization

Our urban design consultants guide cities through revitalization projects that preserve character while adapting to modern needs.

Wayfinding & Placemaking

We create intuitive wayfinding systems and distinctive placemaking elements that strengthen the connection between people and places.

Sustainable & Resilient Design

Our designs integrate green infrastructure and environmentally responsible solutions to support long-term urban sustainability.

Multimodal & Pedestrian-Friendly Planning

We design urban spaces that prioritize walkability, bike access, and public transit to create safer, more connected communities.

Mixed-Use & Transit-Oriented Development

Our team helps cities design vibrant, mixed-use districts that optimize land use and encourage growth around transit hubs.

Designing cities for the future

Urban spaces shape how people live, work, and interact. A well-designed streetscape can transform a business district into a thriving hub, while a neglected public space can hinder community engagement. WSB’s approach to urban design considers every detail—how people move through a space, how infrastructure supports daily life, and how aesthetics enhance functionality.

We focus on creating places that are both practical and inspiring. Whether revitalizing a historic downtown, integrating sustainable design elements, or improving pedestrian connectivity, our urban design team works closely with city leaders, businesses, and residents to align each project with the community’s needs. By blending form and function, we craft spaces that look good and work well, both today and for future generations.

Streetscape with sidewalk and bench

Featured project

Explore WSB's urban design projects

All Projects

Opus Placemaking and Urban Design

The Opus park welcomes visitors with its monument signage on display at the campus entrance. Visitors can visit a map, housed within a kiosk, that features flyers promoting upcoming events in the area. The campus includes colorful pavement representing the colored trail loops and a water feature that is visible from the light rail transit (LRT) platform and doubles as a splash pad.

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Flats on 4th

Flats on 4th is a new six-story mixed-use building with 92 rental housing units and retail space at the intersection of 3rd Avenue and 4th Street SE in Rochester, Minnesota. It offers a welcoming, upscale housing option for a prominent urban corner across from the Rochester/Olmsted County Government Center.

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Mainstreet Improvements

The City of Hopkins purchased two vacant gas stations located at the same intersection. Both sites were blighted and had several environmental components that were prohibiting development activity. Hopkins purchased the sites and began efforts to clean the sites to make them more attractive to potential developers.

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OUR EXPERTISE

Shaping the future of infrastructure

Our teams of experts work together to seamlessly deliver innovative and ground-breaking service. Learn about each of our groups.

Transportation

Construction

Energy

Community

Environment

Technology
People working at a table.

Discover Our Difference

We partner with our clients and communities to build what’s next in infrastructure – the places, spaces, and systems that support our lives.

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