PRESS RELEASES

University of Pennsylvania Team Wins the 2008 ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition

4/7/08

DALLAS — A plan drafted by a University of Pennsylvania team to redevelop a site within the Cedars neighborhood of Dallas has been selected as the winning scheme in the sixth annual ULI (Urban Land Institute) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. The team’s entry was selected over plans submitted by other competition finalist teams from the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin, and an additional team from the University of Pennsylvania.

The winning entry, “Belleview Place,” captivated jury members with its innovative approach to integrating the Cedars neighborhood to the downtown, and its use of ground leases to retain public ownership of land to allow for a change of uses in the future. The winning team received the top prize of $50,000.

The annual competition is open to graduate students who are pursuing real estate-related studies at a North American university. It is designed to encourage cooperation and teamwork – necessary talents in the planning, design and development of sustainable communities – among future land use professionals and allied professions, such as architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, engineering, real estate development, finance, psychology and law. Through the competition, interdisciplinary teams of graduate students are challenged to craft practical, workable solutions for the revitalization or development of an actual site in an urban area within North America.

Created in 2002, the ULI Hines competition has been funded in perpetuity through a $3 million endowment from urban development pioneer Gerald D. Hines, chairman and owner of the Hines real estate organization. Hines, who attended the competition in Dallas, said, “I am impressed with all of these students. They are thinking innovatively and their collaborative effort represents the future of the land use industry.”

This year, teams were assigned a site that is south of downtown Dallas and  bordered by the northern edge of the Interstate 30 right-of-way; the South Central Expressway; the railroad right-of-way between and paralleling Corinth Street and Grand Avenue; and South Austin Street. Teams had the option of choosing a 12-block site within the Cedars, or a site on 57 acres that could be reclaimed by decking over the “canyon,” which is a 1.5-mile below-grade stretch of Interstate 30 between the Convention Center and the Farmers Market. The teams’ proposals assumed that three major infrastructure initiatives to transform downtown Dallas would be been adopted: the Trinity River Corridor (recreational amenities, water management and environmental reclamation); Trinity River Parkway (a 10-mile express toll road to divert thru traffic from downtown); and Project Pegasus (the redesign of downtown interstates and interchanges).

ULI selected this site because it provides an opportunity for students to illustrate innovative ways to incorporate six aspects of urban design identified by ULI as essential components of sustainable communities. These include: 1) mixed-income housing; 2) adequate infrastructure to support growth; 3) ample public space; 4) places of commerce; 5) environmental preservation, incorporating green design principles to mitigate climate change; and 6) financial feasibility.

The winning team was selected by a jury of renowned real estate development, architecture, urban planning and design experts: Jury Chairman James J. Curtis, III, principal, Bristol Group, Inc., San Francisco; Chad Barron, principal, Pioneer Property Group, Seattle; Ray Brown, architect and designer, Self Tucker Architecture, Inc., Memphis; Donald K. Carter, president, Urban Design Associates, Pittsburgh; William D. Chilton, managing principal, Pickard Chilton, New Haven; Todd Johnson, principal, Design Workshop, Denver; Signe Nielsen, principal, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects PC, New York City; and Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia. Financial advisers to the competition were: Kenneth H. Hughes, president, Hughes Development, L.P., Dallas; and John M. Walsh, III, president, TIG Real Estate Services, Inc., Dallas.

“These students have had a real opportunity to collaborate and work together as a team, which is essential in the land use industry,” Curtis said. “I am impressed that sustainability was an essential ingredient in all the design proposals.”

The winning University of Pennsylvania team beat out tough competition by the three runner- ups, which were selected from 96 teams comprised of 480 students representing 29 universities in the U.S. and Canada. The three finalist teams split an award of $30,000. 

The winning development scheme:

University of Pennsylvania, School of Design: Belleview Place invites a rethinking of the definition of urban spaces in Dallas. The plan harnesses Cedars’ assets to bridge neighborhoods divided by physical, economic and cultural differences by connecting open space, transit and institutional resources. These strategies position Belleview Place as a destination for everyone – from professionals seeking downtown living to working-class families seeking convenience and comfort. This planned-unit development orients Cedars along mass transit and creates vibrant, safe and walkable corridors using urban design guidelines centered on streets as an integral part of the public realm. Civic amenities and commercial installations along these corridors strengthen connections between area neighborhoods by providing equitable standards of social and physical infrastructure for all. The development strategy identifies key nodes for dense commercial growth based on a framework of phased infrastructure, public investment, leveraging private funding, and land development to increase land values and attract a range of developers.

The entries from the three runner-ups:

University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning: “Redefining the Vista” builds on current cultural and institutional assets of the Cedars with new vistas and view corridors of downtown Dallas and the Trinity River corridor. A reorientation of streets around a new central plaza–anchored by a gateway, a public fountain, and a mix of housing and retail–creates a hub for employment, entertainment, artistry, and recreation and meets the region’s unfulfilled demand for an affordable, easy-going neighborhood integrating both market-rate and affordable housing.

University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture: “Cedars: Reconnect, Revitalize” stitches together social, physical and economic connections from an earlier era. Medium and low-rise uses traverse the spine connecting the Cedars DART stop with Old City Park. A diverse mix of families, artists, and professionals forms the core of a neighborhood already taking root. Central to the development theme is the proposed Natural Connections network of multi-modal and sustainable, “complete streets,” greenways, and open space.

University of Pennsylvania, School of Design: “Interchange” turns the word’s meaning from its car-centric, space-wasting, and neighborhood-dividing connotations to a holistic vision of cultural, economic, and ecological living and working environment. The intersecting axes of the DART line and major streets connecting downtown and the Cedars activate a new kind of interchange in which neighborhood-scale parks and pathways and commercial and residential components attract residents who value accessibility to transit and a sustainable urban lifestyle.

Three team entries were also selected for honorable mentions: University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with “Cedar Core;” Massachusetts Institute of Technology with “Digital Thread;” and the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design with “Big Green.” The entries from the winning team, the three runner-ups and the three honorable mentions can be found on the competition Web site (www.udcompetition.uli.org.)

For more information on the ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, visit www.udcompetition.uli.org .