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Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is the 2023 ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development laureate

2023-12-14T18:03:00-05:00

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has today announced Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo as its selection for the 2023 ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development, one of the industry’s leading honors for community building and development worldwide.

“La Dauphine,” as she is better known to the press, has spearheaded a renowned program of green investments in the French capital while simultaneously embarking on initiatives aimed at pedestrianization and alleviating urban heat islands, among other key policy drives which have made her into a leading figure in the international movement towards ‘15-minute cities,’ housing justice, and better healthy buildings policies.

“Mayor Hidalgo’s leadership throughout two decades of public service has not only made Paris a healthier, more inclusive, and more livable city today but has also transformed the way other cities think about the possibilities of tomorrow,” Diane Hoskins, ULI Global Chair and the co-CEO of Gensler, said of her accomplishments. “He...

Milwaukee's Ascent tower developer on its instant impact and the future of mass timber

2022-10-19T17:24:00-04:00

“We keep amassing this incredible pool of knowledge. It would be crazy to do all of that research and development and not scale it.”

New Land Enterprises (the developers behind Korb + Associates' record-setting Ascent tower design) managing director Tim Gokhman sat down recently to discuss the bellwether project with the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He told Milwaukee native Alby Gallun that the selection of the materials was driven perhaps unsurprisingly by aesthetics and marketing considerations, but that its ability to reduce on-site labor costs and the speed of the construction timeline were also deciding factors along with its proven sustainability and performance metrics.

Gokham said he thinks the burgeoning material can eventually be used up to a height of "30 to 40 stories" and stated that its biggest obstacle (at least for now) is insurance rates driven by the misconstrued risk of fire and water damage. “It is temporary,” he said finally, inferencing the need for further research into its structural capabilities. “The only reason I think why the insurance rates are high is because there aren’t enough data ...

California's inventory of disused strip malls may be an overlooked option to shore up its housing stock by 2030

2022-05-02T12:35:00-04:00

Converting empty or underutilized strip malls and shopping centers into mixed-use residential and retail developments could help solve California’s housing shortage crisis and allow stores to stay afloat amid the shift to online shopping, said housing experts and industry leaders during a panel at the Urban Land Institute’s spring meeting last week in San Diego. However, that transformation will require cities to change their land-use policies.

Greyfield land may be the most underutilized resource in the state’s harried attempt to create the more than 2.5 million housing units required to meet demands set forth by the Department of Housing and Community Development in March. A bill introduced last week by state rep Buffy Wicks would include them along with disused offices and environmentally unhealthy parking lot spaces in a zoning update that could allow developers to make relatively quick conversions into mixed-use sites with job-site provisions for apprenticeship employment.

With a portion of the state's population moving east, the measure has the most potential in embattled urban areas like LA or San Diego. According to a report from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, around 40% of the state’s 50 largest cities do not allow for residential development on designated commercial plots currently....

Architect Alejandro Aravena receives 2019 ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development

2019-07-23T20:35:00-04:00

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on education and research initiatives supporting responsible land use and sustainability practices. This year the J.C. Nichols Prize has been awarded to Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena.

In a recent press release ULI trustee Jodie W. McLean shares, "One of Alejandro's greatest accomplishments is the process in which he's connected architecture and working with communities, taking care to include people's ideas on how to make a better environment to improve all parts of the community. He doesn't just draw solutions, he strives (for his work) to be part of the solution."

UC Innovation center - Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago. Image © Nico Saieh

Founder of the Santiago-based architecture firm ELEMENTAL along with Gonzalo Artega, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddo, and Diego Torres, many of Aravena's projects, have reflected a simplistic and holistic design approach. Aravena has shared with the UCI, "When we crea...

Urban Land Institute hosts urban planning Lego workshop for students

2016-12-13T13:03:00-05:00

What better way to teach high school-age students how to tackle the problems of urban planning than with Legos? This was the thought of the Urban Land Institute, which according to this article in Metro News put on a workshop for an 11th grade class in Toronto to help them plan a city that, while fictional, took many of its challenges from Toronto's current urbanity. As the article notes:

The students were divided into teams and given the task of designing a new, mixed-use development while balancing competing demands like affordable housing, business interests and environmental standards.

For example, Yutiga’s team had to think on their feet when they realized they “couldn’t create underground parking due to soil conditions.”

And like Toronto, the fictional city their development was in also grapples with problems like food deserts, homelessness and, of course, parking.

For more in Lego-related news:

University of Maryland grad students envision redevelopment plan for New Orleans neighborhoods

2015-04-10T18:26:00-04:00

Founded by Gerald D. Hines, the annual Urban Land Institute Hines competition challenges multidisciplinary graduate student teams from North American universities to propose a comprehensive redevelopment program for a designated U.S. metro area. The ideas competition is set up as a design exercise with no plans of implementation, but the hypothetical situations of the brief are largely based on actual urban development and redevelopment scenarios, so students get to test their design skills in relevant real-world issues. What student wouldn't be motivated by that?

For its 13th edition, the competition focused on the Tulane/Gravier and Iberville neighborhoods in downtown New Orleans that were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

2015 ULI Hines finalists (starting on the L, clockwise): Harvard University: “Tremé 2.0”; University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin - Madison: “Quartier Vert”; Harvard University: “Claiborne Grove”; University of Maryland: “The Crossing”

The comp...

Editor's Picks #403

2015-02-03T11:20:00-05:00

Archinect Sessions still wants you to share your client horror stories!, (Inspired by the insane Just lost a-hole clients thread from a earlier this month) which you can do via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.

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Stephen Burgen traveled to the newly opened Museo Universidad de Navarra, designed by Rafael Moneo. Mr_Wiggin was disappointed "To me, Moneo's best works are those that are inserted into a place built up 100+ years ago....this, standing alone in the middle of a verdant green, looks like failure of planning".

The NYT reported on the latest developments regarding Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, N.Y. Thayer-D lamented "I know this building is a maintenance nightmare, but it's truly one of the more interesting brutalist buildings out there. A lot of ideas to cull from it".

Orhan Ayyüce shared a quote/story from Esther McCoy's 1981 memorial to Konrad Wachsmann, wherein both Corbu and Konrad praise the Pont Transbordeur as ...

Read the Urban Land Institute's full report on the micro unit housing trend

2015-01-30T15:49:00-05:00

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) recently published a report titled "The Macro View of Micro Units", which shares the latest findings in the revived trend of micro dwellings in the United States. The report arose from a ULI Foundation research grant that the Multifamily Housing Councils received in 2013 to evaluate the market performance and acceptance of small living spaces.

↑ The 23-unit SMARTSPACE SoMa micro apartments at 38 Harriet St. in San Francisco.

Bill Whitlow, a partner of Terra Search Partners, led the ULI Research Committee that wrote the 46-page report. The Committee worked with ULI Multifamily Council members as well as other developers, operators, and design professionals familiar with micro unit developments in conducting interviews. The findings were presented at the ULI's annual fall meeting in New York.

The report focuses especially on high-density and pricey metropolitan cities like New York, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., and San Francisco. The prefab SMARTSPACE ...

Urban Land Institute releases new report about the role of Micro Units

2014-12-18T15:18:00-05:00

New research from the Urban Land Institute suggests that micro units—typically larger than a one-car garage, but smaller than a double—have staying power as a housing type that appeals to urban dwellers in high-cost markets who are willing to trade space for improved affordability and proximity to downtown neighborhoods.

Here's the direct link to the report The Macro View on Micro Units.

Click here for more on the topic of Micro Units on Archinect.

Winners of the 2014 Urban Land Institute Global Awards for Excellence

2014-10-27T19:19:00-04:00

Top-notch real estate development deserves a little recognition, too. The Urban Land Institute announced the winners in their 2014 Global Awards for Excellence, considered as the most prestigious awards program in the land use industry. Now in its 36th year, the open awards competition selects projects that best exhibit high standards in design, construction, planning, management, and economics.

Here's a few of the 2014 winners:

Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, Long Beach, CA, USA.
Developer: Long Beach Judicial Partners LLC/Meridiam Infrastructure; Designer: AECOM

Zuellig Building, Makati City, Philippines
Developer: Bridgebury Realty Corporation; Designer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, et al

Mercado do Bom Sucesso, Porto, Portugal
Developer: Urban Market Company et al; Designer: Ferreira de Almeida, Arquitectos LDA

Tjuvholmen, Oslo, Norway
Developer: Tjuvholmen KS/AS; Designer: Niels Torp Arkitekter Mnal, et al

Find the full list of winners on Bustler.

Despite Successes, Blight Still Threatens Detroit’s Future

2014-07-02T14:07:00-04:00

Urban blight is the single biggest challenge to large-scale revitalization efforts underway in the city of Detroit, where roughly 84,000 properties and vacant lots are considered blighted or at risk of blight [...]. In an interview with DLA Piper attorney and ULI member Jay Hailey, Gilbert kicked off the Institute’s public/private partnership conference in Detroit.

At Boston Latin School, urban planning 101 from the pros

2014-02-25T15:38:00-05:00

Wendy Holm, the Boston Latin teacher who has incorporated Urban Plan into her economics courses, said it combines basic concepts she has taught her students with something very close to a real-world context. “One of the goals that the Urban Land Institute has is that kids come out of this experience and through it have this broader view, then, of this kind of experience and take it into their adult life,” said Holm.