Meet our new Associate, Mariko Krause!

Mariko Krause joins U3 Advisors from the City of Memphis’ Division of Planning & Development, but her association with the firm actually goes back almost a full decade. Mariko was an early and elemental team member of the Memphis Medical District Collaborative, an early U3 Advisors project that continues to drive transformational growth. The lessons she learned there continue to shape her approach to placemaking and her ability to see how so many pieces link together to make communities healthier, stronger, and more livable.

How did you get acquainted with U3 Advisors?

I was born and raised in a small town in Kentucky. Growing up in a small town, I found that people in small towns really invest in other people and in relationships. Later, I moved to Memphis and found my own community at Rhodes College, where I majored in Urban Studies with a focus on Urban & Community Health. It was through that lens of investing in relationships that I saw a lot of the challenges in Memphis at that time.

When I was in college, I got connected to Tommy Pacello [inaugural President of the Memphis Medical District Collaborative], and through him, I learned about U3 Advisors’ work in the Memphis Medical District. In the fall of 2015, I proposed an internship to Tommy for the Memphis Medical District Collaborative, which was formally established in February of 2016. My first meeting with him and the U3 team focused  on Health Sciences Park and brainstorming how public space can be reimagined. Changes in public space can affect people’s behavior and their perceptions about a place. It was through those interactions that I got really excited about this work. After I graduated, I went full time with the Medical District Collaborative and I spent just over six years there, working on many of their programmatic areas.

What kinds of things did you learn from them during that time? 

At the time, our team was working on improving the public realm through public art opportunities,activating vacant lots, and improving streetscape in the District. I also worked closely on the real estate program, helping to create and distribute the financing tools that they still offer today. I worked with small business owners, local residents, and I managed the “Live Local” program, one of the anchor programs that U3 initiated, based on their experience in Midtown Detroit. Through this experience, it became clear there was an opportunity for me to focus my interests within the intersection of real estate, public space activation, and transportation and mobility.

What projects will you be working on right away?

I have a handful of projects: I know that I’ll be working in Fort Worth, on Hazelwood Green in Pittsburgh, and on some of the work they’re doing in Philadelphia. 

How do you describe what you’ll be doing to your friends and family who aren’t in this sector?

I’d say that U3 Advisors is a unique advisory firm that focuses on places and people, and improves the lives of both by working with institutions and communities to reimagine the spaces in and around their facilities and neighborhoods. We work with data to  make stronger connections – in ways that people might not necessarily realize. U3 brings a level of compassion, transparency, nimbleness, and knowledge that is more interdisciplinary and holistic than most consultants in this space.

When you look at the future of urban places, what are you most excited about? What are you most curious about sharing with institutions and local leaders?

I’ve always defined urban planning as addressing the questions: how can people coexist with one another – how can they live together? I’ve always been very passionate about public health and how spaces affect the health and wellbeing of everyone. I think that there are so many ways that our society can be improved; whether you’re talking about a neighborhood or an institution, they’re all made up of people, so there’s an element of health and wellbeing that everyone has a fundamental right to. I think of my work as affecting something as simple as a sidewalk or a green space, or how urban design shifts a person’s perception of their surroundings when they’re going from point A to point B. People may not always realize it, but planning and design choices do affect their feelings about a place and the decisions they make as they move through it.

If I were talking to an institution, I would say that of course they have to carry out their mission, but while they are doing that, are there opportunities to think about what kind of impact they can make around their locations. How can they use the resources that they have as assets to both themselves and in the communities where they’re located?

I’ve often thought of myself as a generalist. [laughs] I like to take a holistic approach to placemaking, applying urban design principles, but also thinking about how they intersect with mission-driven real estate and economic development. What can all of that look like?