The look of downtown Sioux Falls could dramatically change in the next 12 years. A local firm has created a virtual crystal ball to get a glimpse of what downtown could look like by 2020.

Ever since the city put a stop to cruising on the loop in Sioux Falls, officials have been looking for ways to develop downtown. In 2001 the Sioux Falls city council appointed an 11 member committee to prepare a long-range plan for the future of downtown. In 2006 a development to change the skyline of downtown, Uptown at Falls Park, was unveiled. And now a local architectural firm is showing off it's ideas for a new look in the center of the city. 

It's a view of downtown Sioux Falls that not many people get to see.

Jeff Hazard of Koch Hazard Architects says, "I think people kind of get excited when they see some of these images." 

Koch Hazard Architects say a virtual fly-through tour of downtown can be a site that helps shape the city. 

Hazard says, "When you do 3D graphic models I think it's a lot easier for us to visualize. It makes it easier to explain some of the ideas to others." 

For instance it can compare what the banks of the Big Sioux River in downtown look like today to what could happen to the river front in the next 12 years. 

Hazard says, "I think it's important to plan in order to make sure downtown develops as well as it can." 

The virtual images are just ideas right now and not concrete plans. But Jeff Hazard, the CEO of Koch Hazard Architects, says he hopes these images can get people talking about the future of downtown. 

Hazard says, "This is just one idea of how downtown could look in the future and our hope would be it's a tool that would get used by the downtown community and Sioux Falls overall to talk about and change and update as ideas change, as the facts change." 

Change in downtown is what the three dimensional pictures show.

Jeff Hazard has shown the images to several downtown groups. He most recently gave the presentation at a downtown strategic planning meeting.