Enter Mayo Clinic’s ‘Name the Cranes’ Contest and Make Your Mark on Rochester

Downtown already feels like a construction zone with Mayo’s huge expansion, but here’s a fun new twist: the community is being given an opportunity to make their mark on the skyline.

We Minnesotans have a thing for naming big machines. For years, people have been getting super creative with the snowplow names, and now Mayo Clinic is officially joining the fun.

Thirteen tower cranes are set to rise over the Mayo campuses, and they’ll be impossible to miss. They’ll be part of daily life in Rochester over the next few years, so why not make them a little more fun with your own name idea?

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Mayo has launched a “Name the Crane” contest, inviting staff, patients, and Rochester residents to submit their best ideas. Go broad, get clever, or pick a name tied to one of the specific projects - it’s totally up to you.

And if you’re wondering what all this construction is actually leading to, Mayo is sharing details on each crane’s location and the buildings or infrastructure they’ll help bring to life.

Submissions are open now through January 30th. After that, finalists will be selected, and the community will get to vote. The winning crane names will be announced in spring 2026 and displayed right on the cranes themselves.

Will naming a crane fix traffic? No.
Will it magically make construction quieter? Also no.
But will it make the next few years of building in the Med City a little more tolerable, maybe even a little fun, and totally on brand for Minnesota? Absolutely.