What does the best building experience look like in busy communities?

Communities love progress-it means they are prosperous, have amenities and are well cared for. Progress can also look like detours, traffic cones, and a change in your daily routine. When not informed, the community can feel inconvenienced. Communication can solve 90% of these problems.

Aggieville is a bustling restaurant and shopping district with over 100 businesses in Manhattan, Kansas. The college town brings in thousands of students, visitors and the broader community. With efforts to update the District and create a more pedestrian-friendly space, the City of Manhattan hired McCownGordon to reconstruct streets, sidewalks, landscaping, lighting and more.

From the start, McCownGordon realized this project would impact so many people. The team went above and beyond to deliver the best building experience with clear communication. The solution was visible, clear and concise messaging to provide a safe, pleasant, and informed experience.

McCownGordon built and managed a dedicated website to host weekly updates that informed the community of road and walkway closures, significant changes and schedule updates. Aggieville patrons accessed the webpage via email communications, printed materials at businesses and QR codes on various collateral including construction fencing, community fliers and more.

To amplify the message further, the project team personally met with each business owner/manager and provided them with a communication card to the landing page. Our approach to creating a smooth, high-communication process during construction resulted in more than 920 views of the website.

The tool was so critical to business communication that the local government and business association used the site to keep the community informed and engaged in the process. The city is now creating a permanent site like this for all its city construction projects.

“McCownGordon has made this as pain-free as possible. Their teamwork, dedication and especially their communication have been invaluable to the 100+ businesses affected daily.”

Dennis Cook, Executive Director of Aggieville Business Association