Cornell Teams Ready for ULI-Hines Urban Design Competition
Once again this year, the Program in Real Estate, Departments of City and Regional Planning, Historic Preservation Planning and Landscape Architecture have combined forces to assist in preparing teams for the ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. The ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition strives to encourage cooperation and teamwork—necessary talents in the planning, design, and development of great places—among future real estate professionals through a design competition centered on an urban challenge in a specific locale.
“ULI-Hines is a terrific interdisciplinary experience, and provides a real life context for our students as well as faculty to collaborate,” said David Funk, Director of the Cornell Program in Real Estate, adding “the experience students gain through preparation for the competition is an immense value in and of itself.” Visiting landscape architecture professor Nadia Amoroso held weekly ULI Prep classes with students who met on Wednesday nights through November 29. Student teams prepared practice exercises that were critiqued and supported by graduate faculty from landscape architecture, planning and real estate programs. Five Cornell teams will participate in additional training during the week of January 15—prior to start of the spring semester and ahead of the January 26th date when this year’s competition case arrives. The competition carries a $50,000 first prize!
This year’s competition site, to be announced on January 26, 2007, will be large scale and present complex challenges, needing practicable, innovative solutions that reflect responsible land use. The solutions are to be multifaceted, incorporating design, planning, market potential and feasibility, and development strategies, and often include representation from the many allied professions, such as architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, engineering, real estate development, finance, psychology, law, and others. The submission to the competition will include presentation drawings, tables, schedules, and text.
The fifth annual ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition is part of the Urban Land Institute’s ongoing effort to raise interest among young people in creating better communities, improving development patterns, and increasing awareness of the need for multidisciplinary solutions to development and design challenges. This year, for the fifth consecutive year, Cornell grad students from real estate, business, planning, architecture and landscape architecture programs will be working hard to secure a spot in the national finals. Over 70 teams from across the country will compete for four finalist positions. Program in Real Estate members of the class of 2007 will be participating on all entering teams.