DESIGN/
Seventh Hill is an urban design consultancy dedicated to improving human experiences in the public realm through immersive technology and insightful research.
Great places are made from well-designed social and spatial relationships. Successful design embraces the complexity of culture, history, and lived experience to guide meaningful change. Integrating physical, digital, and personal interactions, we empower both people and places to transform together.
We combine urban design expertise with tailored evaluation tools to provide measurable project outcomes.
EXPERTISE
User Experience Research
Project Evaluation Metrics
Urban Design & Placemaking
Cold Weather & Winter Design
Public Engagement Strategies
Charrette & Workshop Facilitation
Underrepresented Stakeholder Engagement
EVALUATION TOOLS
Focus Groups
Mobile Surveys
Video Interviews
360° Virtual Tours
Physical Prototypes
3D Renderings & Visuals
Augmented / Virtual Reality
OUTCOMES
Youth Participation
Informed Decision-Making
Improved Place-Attachment
Increased Social Engagement
Shared Vision for Future Action
Awareness of Urban Environment
Community Member Self-Efficacy
WORK
We Are Buckeye | Neighborhood Plan
The goal of Buckeye Neighborhood Plan was to design & develop a shared vision for the Greater Buckeye Neighborhood in Cleveland. By gathering ideas from residents, business owners, and local organizations, this plan will serve as a guide for public and private partnerships for redevelopment of the community. The process was initiated by Burten, Bell, Carr Development Corporation and led by City Architecture in collaboration with Seventh Hill and DesignExplorr.
Cleveland Vacant Land Opportunity Tool (CLEVLOT)
Started in 2022, CLEVLOT is a two year process to create a collaboratively-built, open-source database and planning tool to guide vacant land reuse projects and management strategies for the advancement of environmental justice, public health, and quality of life for Cleveland’s overburdened communities. The project is funded by an EPA grant managed by Western Reserve Land Conservancy. Seventh Hill is leading the design process and stakeholder engagement actions for this collaborative work.
MySoutheast Community Visioning Process
MySoutheast is a community visioning process to guide collective action with residents, business owners, and other stakeholders of the Mount Pleasant and Union-Miles neighborhoods on Cleveland’s Southeast side. The ultimate goal of our work is to enrich the experience of those that live, work, play, and worship in both communities. The process is led by Shelley Freed from (re)startsmart with community outreach strategy provided by Seventh Hill and support from PAADG Studio.
Buckeye Road Refresh
Completed in August 2021, Buckeye Road Refresh is a transportation planning project for Cleveland’s Buckeye Road between Woodhill Road and South Moreland Boulevard. The project is a Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative (TLCI), which provides funding to re-imagine critical roads, streets, and corridors that impact the overall health of a neighborhood. Seventh Hill led the community engagement strategy in partnership with local resident Julian Khan and consultant team leader City Architecture.
Vision Zero Action Plan
Vision Zero Cleveland is a collaborative effort to eliminate serious injuries and deaths from crashes on Cleveland roads through clear, measurable strategies to provide safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all. Led by the City of Cleveland, the project involves multiple forms of resident input to prioritize design and policy recommendations. The Vision Zero Action Plan’s consultant team includes Nelson\Nygaard, Seventh Hill, and Bongorno Consulting.
Our Summit Lake
Our Summit Lake is a community process to create a shared vision for land within Akron’s Summit Lake neighborhood. The process is led by The City of Akron with guidance from a Resident Advisory Board comprised of Summit Lake residents. The project timeline includes multiple interactive ways for Summit Lake residents to get involved and share their ideas. Community engagement actions were led by Seventh Hill in collaboration with designexplorr’s Jacinda Walker and Clifford Benjamin Herring from PAADG Studio.
25Connects | 25Conecta
Led by Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA), 25Connects is a community planning process to provide design recommendations to develop West 25th Street as a walkable, transit-supportive, mixed-use corridor. Seventh Hill partnered with Stantec to guide future investments for RTA’s MetroHealth Line bus rapid transit (BRT) line.
Reaching Lincoln Heights
Lincoln Heights is a growing area of Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, nestled between an industrial valley and elevated interstate highway. Seventh Hill partnered with city planner Robert Brown and architectural designer Clifford Benjamin Herring to create a community-led vision for future development. Working with client Tremont West Development Corporation, Seventh Hill led a public planning process to create physical design recommendations and strategies to support affordability in the neighborhood.
Elevate The East: Connecting Art + People
Launched in 2019, Elevate The East is a public art planning process spanning several neighborhoods on Cleveland’s Eastside served by Burten, Bell, Carr Development Corporation. The project incorporates creative civic engagement methods to gather historic research, site analysis, and community priorities to guide public art investments in the neighborhoods.
COLDSCAPES: Design Ideas for Winter Cities
Co-edited by David Jurca and Brad Valtman, COLDSCAPES is a book filled with small and large scale projects intended to ignite a creative spark in winter cities. From provocative notions of parking lot "snowscaping" to compact warming huts, the essays envision active public spaces through all four seasons. COLDSCAPES is the sixth volume in the CUDC's Urban Infill journal series.
Making Our Own Space (MOOS)
Started in 2015, MOOS is an award-winning program focused on engaging and empowering middle and high school students with the skills to transform their neighborhood public spaces. Through hands-on workshops, youth work with professional designers of color to imagine and build their own playscapes. The program is led by Kent State CUDC and active in four Cleveland area neighborhoods, plus a podcast.
Our Change Story
What leads people to change their minds? OurChangeStory.com is a digital platform to better understand this process by sharing individual experiences of change. The online portal invites people of all backgrounds to share their stories about any personal change experience they find meaningful.
BLAH BLAH BLOB!
Winner of Chicago's 2013 Activate Union Station placemaking competition, Blah Blah Blob! is an inflatable sculpture created from 300 yards of neon fabric. The interactive installation visually enlivens it surroundings, but also invites people to explore within. Several activities have been programmed inside the mobile space, including parties, group yoga, and music performances. Project partners included CUDC and Latent Design.
Pop Up Rockwell
Open to the public from April 21-27, 2012, Pop Up Rockwell was a one-week experiment to test "complete & green street" improvements on downtown Cleveland's Rockwell Avenue. Graduate students in an urban design studio led by David Jurca conducted the research, design, installation, and evaluation of real-world street transformations. Pop Up Rockwell is published in the book Tactical Urbanism and featured as a Context Sensitive Solution case study by the Federal Highway Administration.
Glenville SUPERSEATS
The desire for public seating and picnic areas along Glenville's E. 105th Street emerged from community feedback gathered during the 2017 INDEX Studio. Led by David Jurca and CUDC staff, the design allows users to rotate and flip the modular pieces upside down, forming benches in various configurations. Placed together, the benches create a platform for picnics or performances. Flip them upside down to reveal an undulating ribbon—or a long red cape. The SUPERSEATS are inspired by Glenville as the birthplace of heroes Jesse Owens, Harrison Dillard, and Superman.
Crooked River Commute
As the crow flies, it is 30 miles from Kent to Cleveland, and 40 miles if you drive. But there is another route between the cities—a historic route navigated before European settlement and formed from our glacial heritage. The Crooked River Commute is a 50-mile, two-day kayaking journey from Kent to Cleveland along the Cuyahoga River. Participants leave with a changed perception of their local environment. David Jurca led the trip for five consecutive years and the Commute continues under the management of Kent State University.
For The Winter
Why design cities that are only appealing during the warmer months? For The Winter is a movement to inspire architects, designers, and all residents to embrace winter weather and collaborate to increase livability in all four seasons. Through publications, design consulting, cultural events, and invited lectures, Seventh Hill strives to inspire cold weather cities to become For The Winter.
CPL150: Community Vision Plan
The Cleveland Public Library (CPL) partnered with Kent State CUDC to lead an innovative approach to library planning. CPL150 is an EDRA award winning process to determine the appropriate services that will be offered at CPL's branch locations by 2019, the 150th anniversary of the library. While at CUDC, David Jurca managed the project and developed the design research framework, which resulted in four reports, covering 13 different library branches.
About
Seventh Hill is led by David Jurca, an urban designer with over 15 years of professional experience guiding real-world projects and academic research.
Prior to starting Seventh Hill, David was Associate Director at Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, where he managed client projects at a range of scales, from city-wide redevelopment plans to tactical urbanism events. His work has been recognized with awards from the American Planning Association, American Institute of Architects, and Environmental Design Research Association. Internationally, David's design projects were exhibited by Chicago's Metropolitan Planning Council, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Van Alen Institute, Havana's Fabrica de Arte Cubano, and the Venice Biennale of Architecture. David is also an invited speaker on topics including, public placemaking, design for winter cities, urban data, and innovative community engagement methods.
In 2013, David launched COLDSCAPES.org and co-edited the book "Coldscapes: Design Ideas for Winter Cities" to spur creative urbanism and livability year-round. He also co-founded Design Diversity, an initiative to promote people of color in architecture and design professions in Northeast Ohio. In support of Design Diversity’s mission, David started Making Our Own Space (MOOS), a youth design program that trains students to envision and build their own public space improvements.
During his academic faculty experience, David taught graduate urban design studios, community charrette courses, and advised Master of Urban Design capstone projects. He developed the International Design Exchange (INDEX) graduate studio at KSU's College of Architecture + Environmental Design, an urban design course focused on waterfront redevelopment sites around the world. In recent years, his global urbanism research focused on redevelopment projects in Cuba and Romania. In addition to teaching at Kent State, David also created the Designing Urban Green Spaces course at Case Western Reserve University as a part-time lecturer in the SAGES program.
David is Chair of the City of Cleveland’s Near West Design Review Committee and serves on the Board of Directors for Canalway Partners and CLEVR Community, a nonprofit focused on AR/VR technologies. An outdoor enthusiast, David enjoys birding, running, and kayaking to explore the cities he visits. Locally, he founded the Crooked River Commute, an annual 50-mile paddling journey from Kent to Cleveland along the Cuyahoga River. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from The Ohio State University and received his Master of Architecture from Kent State University.
David Jurca
Principal
Seventh Hill LLC
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A cautionary tale involving direct democracy. https://t.co/bAoIUqA31a
Let's play.
For inquiries, speaking requests, or project collaborations, please get in touch.
216.532.3825
6311 Franklin Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44102
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