Switzerland's City of St. Gallen Establishes Baseline of Walkability in Mixed-Used Neighborhood

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About City of St. Gallen, Switzerland

St. Gallen, or traditionally St Gall, is a Swiss town and the capital of the canton of St. Gallen. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration (with around 167,000 inhabitants in 2019 and represents the center of eastern Switzerland. Its economy consists mainly of the service sector. The town is home of the University of St. Gallen, one of the best business schools in Europe. The main tourist attraction is the Abbey of Saint Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Abbey's renowned library contains books from the 9th century. The official language of St. Gallen is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect. The town has good transport links to the rest of the country and to neighbouring Germany and Austria. It also functions as the gate to the Appenzellerland.

Challenge:

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The City of St. Gallen needed a comprehensive tool that could establish a baseline of walkability and visual recommendations for a prospective redevelopment site for mixed-use neighborhood.

Solution & Results:

Using State of Place, St. Gallen was able:

  • Detailed recommendations

  • Created scenarios

  • Automatically generated before/after renderings using our database of 6000+ blocks to present for approval and resident buy-in

  • Increased ROI

  • Improved walkability

Mariela Alfonzo