City of Oshkosh and Houseal Lavigne win Special Achievement in GIS Award

 

This summer at Esri’s User Conference in San Diego, California, the City of Oshkosh and Houseal Lavigne Associates were recognized for their work with a Special Achievement in GIS Award.

The Story

In 2017, Oshkosh’s largest employer, Oshkosh Corporation, began engaging communities across the nation in search for a new global headquarters. Oshkosh Corp’s recent success with a multi-billion dollar contract for manufacturing the military’s Humvee replacement was motivating them to build a state-of-the-art global headquarters to attract the workforce they needed. As one of the smallest cities with a Fortune 500 Company, City officials knew it would be difficult to retain them.

Earlier that same year Oshkosh Corporation rejected a concept for a new downtown waterfront campus. Once Oshkosh Corp rejected the Downtown site, they published a list of their desired site criteria, including: more than 30 acres, interstate access, financially feasible, a “WOW!” World Class location, shovel ready, and able to attract a workforce.

The Analysis

Seeking to retain Oshkosh Corp and their jobs, City staff performed a site availability assessment in Esri’s ArcGIS and found 18 sites in the community that met some of Oshkosh Corp’s criteria. In performing the analysis they discovered the City’s Lakeshore Golf Course met all Oshkosh Corp’s site criteria.

Before the City could offer a portion of its waterfront golf course, staff had to convince the public and City Council that selling part of the golf course was the right decision for the community. The City hired Houseal Lavigne Associates to develop a program and visualize what the campus could look like and help with a community dialogue to win public support for the project, and ultimately convince Oshkosh Corporation to stay in the community.

The Plan & Visualization

With only a month to submit a proposal, Houseal Lavigne Associates was asked to develop a plan, program, and renderings. The plan had to incorporate dramatic views of their main building, public recreational amenities, a riverwalk and trails, access to Interstate 41, and opportunities for expansion. Utilizing Esri’s CityEngine, they produced illustrations and a webscene that were critical in helping the public visualize the potential for the concept and ultimately win support to sell part of the golf course for the new global HQ. In November Oshkosh Corp’s Board of Directors accepted the City’s proposal to purchase the golf course and construct their new HQ in Oshkosh.

The Tools

ArcGIS

Once Oshkosh Corp rejected the Downtown site, they published a list of their desired site criteria, including: more than 30 acres, interstate access, financially feasible, a “WOW!” World Class location, shovel ready, and able to attract a workforce. Desktop GIS was used by City staff to find sites within the City fitting their search criteria. Based on the queries performed in ArcMap, only the Lakeshore Golf Course met the requirements of Oshkosh Corporation.

CityEngine

Visualizing the proposed development concept in 3D was critical to winning community support. Esri’s CityEngine was used to help visualize the new Corporate Headquarters, along with the future public parkland surrounding the campus, a new Riverwalk, new piers and boat slips, and new commercial development along the frontage road. CityEngine was also used to generate site data, including square footage of the future uses, parking requirements and supply, and linear feet of new roads and sidewalks.

Status

The new HQ is currently under construction, with occupancy targeted for October 2019. A website for the project has been created (https://oshkoshhq.com) where visitors can track its progress, take a virtual tour, and even view webcam images of the construction.