Cornell Students Prepare for Design Competition
The tenth annual ULI/Gerald D. Hines Urban Design Competition brings students together to compete in tackling a real land use situation in a U.S. city. The competition challenges multi-disciplinary student teams to devise a comprehensive development program for a real, large-scale site. Student teams are comprised of at least three disciplines and have two weeks in January to develop solutions that include extensive graphics, drawings, site plans, tables and market-feasible financial analysis.
Each year, teams comprised of up to five graduate students from the fields of Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Real Estate, Business and City and Regional Planning, in addition to fifth-year Architecture students, come together to compete in the ULI/Gerald. D. Hines Urban Design Competition. This year, Cornell anticipates having more than five diverse teams enter the competition and vie for the prestigious $50,000 first place award.
Cornell teams have a disciplined approach in preparing for the competition, as the City and Regional Planning department offers students a seven-week course in relevant topics ranging from financing and land use to density and form. The course helps prepare students, ranging in backgrounds, for the challenges associated with the competition. As a follow-up to this course - which is offered in the fall - students have an opportunity to participate in a charrette of the competition in January, which serves as dress rehearsal for the competition that takes place the following week. The competition demands dedication from students; In order to participate in the charrette and competition, they must come back to campus from winter break two weeks early.
Jason Patch, PRE’13, is eager to compete this year, stating, “This is an opportunity for finance to intersect with design and context. I am excited to collaborate on a team of graduate students in architecture, planning, real estate and business students to help solve a real world development problem faced by a U.S. city.”
In recent years, teams from Cornell have been awarded “Honorable Mention” on two separate occasions, marking a top-ten finish from over 100 competitive entries submitted from top-tier schools across the country. Last year’s first place team hailed from the University of Michigan and the excerpted image below is from their final deliverable.
Excerpt from the Winning Entry by the University of Michigan – 2011 Competition
For more information regarding this and other case competitions offered to the Program in Real Estate, please contact the administrative office at (617) 255-7110 or click the link above.