We Realise Potential

Whether you already have your vision, or you still need to define it, our place process is straightforward, result-driven and unlocks hidden value.
Our services
Value-added placemaking
MurrayTwohig provides value-adding
strategy services in three ways:

Place
visioning

Finding the why

A process of workshops enabling you to establish a clear idea of what you are making, why and for who. This produces 4 key deliverables:

  • Project Vision Statement (what is this place)
  • Place Narrative (selling the story)
  • Place Strategy (the roadmap to success)
  • The Principles (sticking to the plan)

Place
delivery

Landing the value

Then, we help you execute your plans in order to maximise support, demand and value. We focus on 9 primary workstreams:

  • Ground Floor Land-use Planning
  • Staged Placemaking and Phasing
  • Meanwhile Strategy and Phase 1 Amplification
  • Management Strategy and Organisational Delivery
  • Retail Merchandise and Mix Strategies
  • Public Space Activation Strategy
  • Masterplan and Planning Briefs
  • Place Engineering the Masterplan
  • Viability Analysis

Complimentary
services

Game plan and execution

We also work with clients to implement their place visions and strategies. Our process and development experience can be applied to any number of challenges:

  • Bid Vision, Strategy and Narrative
  • Planning Vision, Strategy and Narrative
  • Sales Vision, Strategy and Narrative
  • Experiential Marketing
  • Brief Writing
  • Architectural Competitors
  • Charettes and Rapid Prototyping
  • Cultural Strategies
Our Approach
How we help
We embed value at every stage of the process
1
Pre-aquisition /
Bid Advisory
1

Nordkopf

Wolfsburg, Germany
A forward-thinking collaboration between a private developer, SIGNA, architect Henning Larsen, the public sector and the city’s major employer, Volkswagen, to develop a new future-oriented, mixed-use urban district.
2
Project Vision
2

The 78

Chicago, USA
Developing a project narrative to drive external engagement around The 78 – Chicago’s newest neighbourhood – a 62-acre, mixed use community incorporating a prestigious $1.2 billion research centre for the University of Chicago.
3
Development Strategy
3

Governors Island

New York City, USA
Supporting The Trust for Governors Island by helping them develop a real estate vision for a centre for climate change research and thinking that would sensitively incorporate 6 million sq ft of development within the 172-acre public park.
4
Architectural Competition
4

Transamerica Pyramid Center

San Francisco, USA
Facilitating an international design competition for SHVO and the repositioning of this iconic 48-storey skyscraper that comprises 750,000 square-feet in the heart of the city’s thriving Financial District.
5
Stakeholder Engagement
5

The Baylands

San Francisco Bay Area, USA
Articulating the project vision to reimagine urban living that combines sustainability with convenience and modernity across a 700-acre site. The vision is communicated across in the masterplan, design guidelines and community engagement.
6
Planning Narrative
6

Waterfront South Central

Dublin, Ireland
Extracting and formulating a project vision and tall building place strategy for the planning application for a whole city block at the gateway to the historic riverfront district.
7
Ground Floor Strategy
7

Mission Rock

San Francisco, USA
Capturing the socially-progressive ambitions of the joint partners, the San Francisco Giants baseball team and Tishman Speyer, to translate that vision into a strategy for ground floor and public spaces in a new, mixed-use, waterfront neighbourhood.
8
Programming +
Activation Strategy
8

Battersea Power Station

London, England
Re-applying the original vision for one of the most exciting and innovative mixed-use neighbourhoods in the world. We reimagined placemaking and place narrative with an innovative and dynamic approach to this iconic London development.
9
Place Phasing
9

2150 Lake Shore

Toronto, Canada
Working with Allies and Morrison, First Capital and a large consultant team to refine the place vision for a powerful and effective staged place strategy to create a dynamic new mixed-use neighbourhood in the heart of Humber Bay Shores.
10
Meanwhile Use Strategy
10

Suffolk Downs

Boston, USA
Helping HYM to define their 160-acre site with three new neighbourhoods and a park, whilst developing approaches to phasing, ground floor use, public space and meanwhile uses.
11
Delivery Advisory
11

Lincoln Yards

Chicago, USA
Delivering a site-wide place vision, delivery strategy and phase 1 program with Sterling Bay and JP Morgan for Lincoln Yards, a 53-acre mixed-use community transforming the north branch of the Chicago River.
12
Repositioning
12

Sony Center

Berlin, Germany
Working with Oxford Properties, Woods Bagot and Helmut Jahn to develop a significant repositioning and re-activation of this commercial and retail asset within a famous Berlin landmark that defines the city’s historic Potsdamer Platz.
Our process
We've spent 20 years developing a placemaking process that is as easy as 123
MurrayTwohig will help you rapidly unlock and capture the knowledge and passion in your team and turn it into a clear, differentiated vision and results focussed strategy. Then we can help you execute it with confidence.

1.

Discovery

Research & Analysis

We start with learning and discovery. We will listen and learn about you and your project, go with you on site tours, neighbourhood tours and conduct market and competitor audits. We run some workshops and generally get under the skin of the project.

2.

Exploration

Workshops & Learning Journeys

We design a set of workshops, events and exercises, specific to your project. Our portfolio of over 100 workshops are challenging and insightful, and are designed to share knowledge, unlock insight and rapidly build consensus to create a single vision. We show how the new insights can be applied to your project, allowing the team to see the project’s opportunities in a new light.

3.

Place strategy

Game plan and execution

Our findings are distilled into a vision, a set of principles, and implementation direction that the team can champion and execute. The result is a clear articulation of what you are making, why and for who, as well as a delivery strategy to realise the vision. This creates team cohesion, eases decision-making and helps build support with planners, local communities, press, stakeholders and future customers.

Our Work
We develop tools to share insight internally and externally
Here are two examples of bespoke deliverables we've created for our clients:
Waterfront south central vision + place strategy
The 78 Chicago guiding principles