Builds is proud to present the inaugural Revitalize & Innovate Symposium to our region. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the sponsors whose generosity made our groundbreaking event possible.
URBANRENEWALPARTNERS
NEIGHBORHOODADVOCATES
INDIVIDUALCHANGEMAKERS
COMMUNITYBUILDERS
WELCOME | 8:30AM
INVOCATION | 8:40AM
From Vacancy To Vibrancy: PANEL1 | 9AM
Placemaking Strategies For Reclaiming
Underutilized Properties
BREAK | 10:45AM
KEYNOTE | 11AM
Anthony A. Williams
LUNCH | NOON
PANEL2 | 1PM
Neighbors At The Table:
Deepening Community Engagement In Development
BREAK | 2:15PM
From Mission To Momentum: PANEL3 | 2:30PM
How Anchor Institutions Are Powering Community Development
CLOSINGREMARKS | 3:45PM
STRONGEXHIBITS | 4PM
2025REVITALIZE&INNOVATIONSYMPOSIUM
How do we build vibrant, inclusive and economically resilient communities? It’s the question at the heart of the Revitalize & Innovate Symposium and one that calls for courage, collaboration and an openness to entirely new ways of working.
Across the country, communities are confronting urgent and complex challenges: widening inequities, disinvestment and systems that continue to marginalize the very people they were meant to serve and uplift. Yet amid these struggles, a powerful truth remains—transformative change is not only possible, it’s already taking root.
The Revitalize & Innovate Symposium is a catalytic space to build momentum, dismantle silos and co-create new models for inclusive progress. By gathering local and national leaders across sectors, we aim to remove any limitations to our thinking and reimagine the development paradigm centering equity, lived experience and generational impact. Throughout the day, we’ll spotlight transformational projects from Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Rochester and beyond—proof of what becomes possible when public, private and non-traditional partners align around a shared vision for justice and opportunity.
This is where purpose meets action. Where tough conversations spark collaborative resolve. And where we commit together to forging a future that is bold, equitable and built by all of us.
Yours in community, Melissa
Melissa Suchodolski President, USC Builds
Located in the heart of Milwaukee’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood, Thrive On King is a $100 million reinvestment in place, people and possibility. The 400,000square-foot transformation of the former Gimbels-Schuster’s department store is now a vibrant hub for wellness, education, affordable housing and economic opportunity and the flagship initiative of the ThriveOn Collaboration, a partnership between the Greater Milwaukee Foundation; the Medical College of Wisconsin; and Royal Capital, a Black-owned development firm.
What sets this project apart isn’t just its scale, it’s the values behind it. Every detail was shaped through years of intentional listening to the community. From 90 units of mixed-income housing to a childcare center, health equity offices, workforce programming and art by local Black and Brown artists, Thrive On King was built with and for the neighborhood.
When USC Builds President Melissa Suchodolski toured the site earlier this year with Rochester Area Community Foundation President & CEO Simeon Banister, and SHIFT Capital Partner & CEO Brian Murray, she returned to Rochester inspired and energized. What if more cities embraced this kind of community-led reinvestment? What if revitalization didn’t erase history, but honored it? That spark became the foundation for the Revitalize & Innovate Symposium. As we continue the day’s
Melissa Suchodolski USC Builds
Adam Driscoll USC Builds
Jo Rowe USC Builds
Sherry Dumont USC Builds
Kate Perry USC Builds
Marcin Suchodolski USC Builds
SPECIALTHANKSTOTHECITYOFROCHESTER&OURVALUEDCOMMUNITYPARTNERS
MayorMalikEvans City of Rochester
BarbaraPierce City of Rochester
RobertDuffy Greater Rochester Chamber
DaniellaVeras City of Rochester
ExecutiveAdamBello Monroe County
SusanGeorge Greater Rochester Chamber
While exhibit access will not be available during lunch or breaks, symposium attendees are invited to explore The Strong’s world-renowned exhibits after today’s program concludes at 4 p.m.—until the museum closes at 5 p.m. Please note that food and beverages are not permitted in exhibit areas.
If you parked in The Strong’s garage, a representative from the Museum will be in the lunchroom to validate your parking ticket.
We want to hear from you! Your voice matters and your feedback will help shape future events that inform, inspire and connect. To complete our postevent survey, click here.
ErikFrisch City of Rochester
BrianDiGiacco 1RDG
XanderRohring GreaterRochesterChamber
RickRynski City of Rochester
Richard Van Belzen Northpoint Business Advisors
SusanRogers WXXI
Click here to view The Strong’s digital indoor map.
Did you know Rochester is home to the nation’s first federally funded urban renewal project? In 1938, long before “urban renewal” became a national buzzword, Rochester’s Corn Hill neighborhood became the site of the Hanover Houses, built through funding from the Housing Act of 1937. This pioneering project marked the beginning of the federal government’s role in clearing blighted areas and building public housing setting the stage for redevelopment efforts across the country.
Rochester is the hometown of George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Company and a pioneer in popularizing photography for everyday people. The Kodak Brownie camera revolutionized personal photography and Kodak film was once used on the moon!
Nestled between the scenic Finger Lakes and the shores of Lake Ontario, Rochester has long punched above its weight. Founded in 1817, this former flour-milling powerhouse quickly became known as “The Flour City,” thanks to its bustling mills powered by High Falls. Later, it reinvented itself as “The Flower City,” a nod to its world-famous nurseries and the legacy of the Ellwanger & Barry horticultural empire.
Rochester is a global leader in optics, imaging and photonics. Institutions like the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics and RIT’s Imaging Science program keep the city on the cutting edge of tech and innovation.
From the Rochester International Jazz Festival to the Eastman School of Music and the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester hums with creativity. It's also home to one of the oldest continuously operating African American churches in the U.S., A.M.E. Zion, and a thriving arts scene anchored by diverse local talent.
The Strong is the world’s largest museum dedicated to the power of play and home to the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Founded in 1857 by the Sisters of Charity, St. Mary’s Hospital holds the distinction of being Rochester’s very first hospital and one of its most storied. When the Civil War intensified, St. Mary’s was designated a U.S. Army General Hospital in March 1863. Over the course of the war, it treated between 2,500 and 3,000 wounded Union soldiers, expanding its capacity with tents on the lawn and even converting hallways into makeshift wards. Its role in caring for the war’s casualties not only marked a turning point in Rochester’s medical history, but also etched St. Mary’s into the broader narrative of national service and sacrifice.
Rochester invented the mail chute. James Goold Cutler patented it in 1883 and the first one was installed downtown.
Kodak engineers in Rochester secretly worked with the U.S. government during the Cold War to design cameras for spy satellites and their tech contributed to the CORONA program, which provided the first satellite images of Earth. Some of this was classified until the 1990s.
Walt Disney came to Rochester to consult with Kodak for help with his early animation technology. He later invited Kodak to be a founding sponsor of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland!
Under the city lie remnants of the old Erie Canal aqueduct, which became part of Rochester’s now-defunct subway system one of the only cities its size to have one. The last subway car ran in 1956, but sections of the tunnels still exist under Broad Street.
Mount Hope is not only the first municipal Victorian cemetery in the U.S., but it’s also the final resting place of Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and 300+ Civil War soldiers plus inventors, politicians and city founders.
B.T. Babbitt, a 19th-century Rochester-based entrepreneur, was one of the first to mass-produce marshmallows not the hand-crafted kind, but the pillowy, store-shelf staple we know today.
Across the country, vacant lots and neglected buildings are too often seen as symbols of decline, but they also represent powerful opportunities for renewal. This panel explores innovative placemaking strategies that transform underutilized spaces into vibrant community assets that reflect local identity and create long-term value.
Panelists will share tools, tactics and success stories from projects that have turned blight into beauty and disinvestment into community impact. Learn how creative partnerships, community visioning and flexible design approaches can breathe new life into forgotten spaces turning what’s been overlooked into places of pride and possibility.
Anthony A. Williams is a transformative leader best known as Washington, D.C.’s mayor from 1999 to 2007, where he led a fiscal turnaround and urban revitalization that reshaped the city’s future.
Before his mayoral term, Williams served as the city’s independent CFO, restoring fiscal stability by balancing the budget, improving credit and ending federal oversight early. His strong financial leadership earned broad public support.
As mayor, he attracted more than $27 billion in private investment, drove major development projects, championed transparency with initiatives like “Neighborhood Action” and helped bring Major League Baseball back to D.C. with the Washington Nationals.
Williams’ career spans federal, state and local roles, including leadership positions in Boston and St. Louis.
A Yale and Harvard Law graduate, and Air Force veteran, he now leads the Federal City Council, advancing inclusive growth and infrastructure in D.C.
To me, the public realm is not only [the public space that is] coming up against the private space. We think of streets and parks as the public realm. But I think of the public realm almost metaphysically. It is really the public good, it’s a community.
Anthony A. Williams
Atashia Sinkler Connected Communitie
Jan Crocker Connected Communities
oo often, communities hear about decisions after hey’re already made. But true community ngagement is more than a box to check it’s the oundation of lasting, inclusive development.
his session explo ads to stronger o anelists will shar entering lived ex and designing dev just for them.
Learn how early, c engagement can t neighborhoods to
Hospitals, universities and cultural institutions often called “anchor institutions”—hold immense potential to shape the future of the neighborhoods they call home.
nchors are moving come active t investing in local and placemaking ctor partnerships, -term nal influence into m.
