Nuveen is a bit of a rare egg. In a good way. They’re a big financial firm, but look to invest in responsible efforts from renewable energies to preservation of underground water tables in farming. They wanted to showcase this positive impact by starting with a single drop (an idea, an initial investment) that creates a sort of self-propelling ripple. Momentum builds, other people and industries get involved, and the world is improved.

Our first passes at this idea were too quaint: a neighborhood street where a mom and pop shop gets renovated. In fact, Nuveen’s impact can be best described from a much broader view of entire ecosystems and large scale infrastructure builds.

Another important piece: Nuveen doesn’t create whole cities from scratch, their influence grows and improves existing structures. Once we had the idea in place, a ton of R&D went into defining just how things “build up” or are improved as the ripple passes through. Dozens of versions of trees, ground undulation, and architectural expansion tests later, we had our look!