The Final Four: Graduate Student Teams Representing Colorado, Columbia University, Harvard, and Texas are 2005 Finalists in ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition

WASHINGTON (March 7, 2005) — Teams representing the University of Colorado, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of Texas-Austin have been selected as the four finalists for the third annual ULI (Urban Land Institute) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. The teams are charged with the design of one of two development sites in Salt Lake Valley; both sites are on the outskirts of Salt Lake City.

The student ideas competition was created in 2002 to honor the legacy of urban development pioneer Gerald D. Hines, chairman of the Hines real estate organization and 2002 recipient of the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. The competition is open to graduate students who are pursuing real estate-related studies at a North American university, including programs in real estate development, city planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture.

A $50,000 prize will be awarded to the winning team; and an additional $30,000 will be split among the remaining finalist teams. The competition is designed as an exercise; there is no guarantee that the students’ plans will be implemented as part of any development of either site.

This year’s competition involved plans for the development of one of two sites owned partly by Kennecott Land. Each of the sites is located at the northern end of the company’s holdings in Salt Lake Valley. The sites are Magna, a 2,208-acre portion of Magna Township in Salt Lake County; and an undeveloped site, known as the Northwest Planning Area, which comprises 2,002 acres and is in the jurisdiction of Salt Lake City.

The competition site of Magna includes developable and undevelopable areas. The developable component includes both Main Street, owned by several entities, and undeveloped land, owned by Kennecott Land. Main Street, the township’s underutilized commercial and civic focal point, is defined for the competition as a 100-acre area one block north and one block south of 2700 South.

The Northwest Planning Area competition site stretches south of Interstate 80 and east of the impoundment berm encircling Tailings Pond. It is a completely undeveloped site.

Each of the four teams submitted a scheme for developing one of the two sites and connecting it to the greater Salt Lake City urban area:

"Tail’s End" from Columbia University: (Northwest Planning Area)
"Tail’s End" is a greenfield development presenting an opportunity to reclaim the lost history of the Northwest Planning Area site. Building on its roles as a pathway for frontier exploration and as a watershed for the Great Salt Lake Valley, a sustainable, scaleable, and feasible community develops from four initial centers of development: university, commercial/hotel, residential/park, and light industry.

"Emergence Magna" from the University of Colorado: (Magna)
"Emergence Magna" connects a revitalized Main Street with the greater Salt Lake region by extending a light rail line through the length of the Magna site and establishing nodes along the connector where development can take place. The master plan, with its mix of uses and densities, presents a plausible scenario for future development with new, rational infrastructure that will catalyze "emergence" opportunities.

"Seeden" from Harvard University: (Northwest Planning Area)
"Seeden" is a critique of the new urbanism, which in practice often uses green space as a barrier between suburban developments and locates town centers at the perimeter to capture adjacent established markets. While aligning with the new urbanism’s core values, Seeden proposes a typological departure by emphasizing connectivity, transparency, and porosity in its master plan for the Northwest Planning Area, using green spaces as a connector and a central downtown as a neighborhood and regional center.

"Community, Culture, Conservation" from the University of Texas—Austin: (Magna)
"Community, Culture, Conservation" are the rubrics that provide organizing principles for this Magna master plan. As an established community with Main Street as its cultural center, Magna occupies a unique environmental setting that, through conservation measures, can accept a wide range of mixed uses over time.

The four finalists’ entries were selected from 81 submissions sent from 25 universities across the United States. Four team entries were also selected for honorable mentions: "Sustainable Roots," from the Georgia Institute of Technology; "Trading Places," from Harvard University; "Reclaiming the Edge," also from Harvard University; and "New Magna," from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The finalist teams were chosen by a jury of renowned real estate development, architecture, urban planning and design experts: Jury Chairman Joseph Brown, FASLA, president and chief executive officer of EDAW in San Francisco; Denise Gammon, senior vice president for development, Forest City Stapleton, Denver; Con Howe, director of planning, City of Los Angeles; Charles R. Kendrick, Jr., managing director, Clarion Ventures, LLC, Boston; A. Eugene Kohn, FAIA, president, Kohn Pedersen Fox, New York City; Todd W. Mansfield, chief executive officer, Crosland Inc., Charlotte, N.C.; Patrick L. Phillips, president, Economics Research Associates, Washington, D.C.; and Marilyn Taylor, FAIA, partner, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP, New York City.

"These students clearly took this challenge head on," Brown said. "They pulled together impressive schemes for suburban development that are realistic and practicable. Their ideas involve innovative ways to accommodate population growth, conserve land, and curb traffic congestion. These are all issues faced by outer ring areas throughout urban America."

The location of the 2005 competition sites-on the outskirts of an urban area, rather than downtown-reflect ULI’s ongoing efforts to promote improved development patterns in suburban areas, said ULI President Richard M. Rosan. "With most development in urban regions occurring on the fringe, ULI has stepped up its focus on ways to both accommodate growth and conserve land in these outlying areas," Rosan said. "This year’s competition provides a prime opportunity for the students to explore the concept of suburban smart growth in relation to the greater urban region."

The ULI Gerald D. Hines Urban Design Competition has been funded in perpetuity with a $3 million endowment from Gerald Hines. Hines is widely known as an industry leader who pioneered the use of high-quality planning and architecture as a marketable feature of development in office, residential and mixed-use projects across the United States and in 13 foreign countries.

"Real estate development is a very exciting, imaginative field. It involves many disciplines and interaction with so many parts of our world-finance, politics, science, psychology-and it affects the lives of so many people," Hines said. "Through this competition, we hope to raise awareness among students of the key role high-quality urban design can plan in today’s world."

In the final phase of the 2005 competition, which concludes April 1, the student finalist teams will have the opportunity to expand their original schemes and respond in more detail. On March 11, a member of each team will visit the Salt Lake Valley, with expenses paid, and they will have the opportunity to tour the sites and refine their presentations. On April 1, finalist team members will assemble, at ULI’s expense, to present their programs to the competition jury members during a public forum in Salt Lake City, which will also be attended by guests from the public and private sectors. The forum will culminate with the announcement of the winning team.