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What if you were told that a brand-new, state-of-the-art building constructed today could be functionally obsolete in less than a decade? This prediction isn’t far-fetched; it’s the emerging reality in a world where technology and user expectations are evolving at a breakneck pace. And nowhere is it more apparent than in the world of parking.

The OAK project began in 2009, when a development firm set their sights on the corner of Northwest Expressway and North Pennsylvania Avenue, the state’s most important and busiest retail intersection. As the region’s only parcel capable of supporting a vertically integrated project of this scale and density, that land represented an opportunity to create something truly special.

Ten built environment projects from eight countries across the EMEA region have been announced as the finalists in the sixth annual ULI Europe Awards for Excellence, which recognize exemplary projects and programs in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. This year’s finalists comprise cutting edge refurbishment, restoration and new build projects, and include residential, healthcare, mixed use, education, community, laboratory, and office projects from Italy, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, France, and Spain.

Following a masterplan adopted by British Land, the AustralianSuper pension fund, and the Southwark Council, developers are now seven years into a 15-year project to transform a 53-acre (21.44 hectares) parcel of industrial land and a former quay into a community that will include as many as 3,000 new homes, office, retail, leisure, and entertainment space.

The opportunity to plan and design more than 50 acres of inner-city urban development in any city is significant, but in Pasadena, California, it is a possible inflection point in the city’s history, an opportunity to redress past mistakes, and to set the stage for future generations to benefit from perceptive and forward-thinking planning.

The Summer 2025 issue of Urban Land is now available for ULI members. This special issue is dedicated to Project Recovery in Los Angeles, with contributions from member leaders including Lew C. Horne and Claire De Briere. Also covered is the ULI Advisory Services team’s work on Panther Island in Fort Worth, Texas.

Texas has experienced a prolonged economic boom, bringing with it a significant explosion in population. From 2000 to 2023, the state’s population grew by a remarkable 46.3 percent. This level of growth inevitably places pressure on cities, whether to update infrastructure, revise planning regulations, or address other critical urban challenges.

Two Art in Place roundtables, hosted by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge and ULI Louisiana in July 2025, set out to reimagine culture as infrastructure—not just a source of murals or festivals, but a cornerstone of downtown’s growth.

Currently, vacancy rates in the Washington, D.C. area are around 20 percent, in line with the national average. The nationwide housing shortage, meanwhile, has hit a record high of 4.7 million homes, despite a five-year uptrend in new construction. The deficit is particularly pronounced in highly desirable urban and inner-suburban locations such as Alexandria, Virginia.

The mission of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has been to ensure that everyone has a home that meets their needs at a price they can afford. Established in 2007 with a gift from longtime member and former ULI chairman J. Ronald Terwilliger, the Center’s activities include technical assistance engagements, forums and convenings, research and publications, and an awards program. The goal is to catalyze the production and preservation of a full spectrum of housing options.

ULI’s Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate has now released the fifth and final installment of its premier primer on achieving net-zero-building carbon emissions through dynamic engagement between owners and tenants. The series explores practical strategies for reducing emissions at both the asset and portfolio levels—highlighting how all parties working together can drive meaningful emissions reductions across all aspects of real estate.

Standing in the shadow of Regions Field and within earshot of Railroad Park, Birmingham’s Urban Supply hints at what the next chapter of downtown life could look like. Once-quiet brick warehouses are being steadily reimagined into patios, storefronts, and gathering spaces along a new pedestrian alley. Early tenants have begun to open their doors, and programming is slowly bringing people into the district. While the project is still in its early stages, the framework is in place for a vibrant hub that will grow block by block in the years ahead.

A two-week program, hosted by UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering and led by José Torero, Matthew Heywood, and Michael Woodrow, with a cohort of early-career professionals tested the limits of The London Plan and imaged what could lie ahead through a fellowship themed “Innovating Tomorrow’s Resilience.”

Climate Week NYC, run by the nonprofit Climate Group and held in parallel with the United Nations General Assembly, makes its annual return this September 21–28 with hundreds of in-person, hybrid, and virtual events. This jam-packed week brings together a powerful cross-section of climate leaders, including inspiring activists; visionary artists; and industry leaders in real estate, business, finance, and government.

In the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, two not-for-profit organizations—Fresh Hope Communities, the public benevolent institution entity of churches of Christ in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory; and Nightingale Housing of Brunswick, Victoria—came together to develop a building that holds 54 units renting at 80 percent of market rates, as well as two community-focused commercial spaces. The Churches of Christ Property Trust has provided a 99-year lease for the land, which allows the units to remain affordable far beyond a more typical 10-year period.

In September 2023, Hong Kong was hit by its heaviest rainfall on record—nearly 6.3 inches (160 mm) in a single hour. Link Asset Management’s Temple Mall North, like many other buildings, suffered severe flood damage. In response, the company invested in detachable flood barriers and Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors to mitigate future risk. For Link’s bottom line, this resilience investment translated into an 11.7 percent reduction in insurance premiums.

As aging retail continue to evolve, one increasingly popular trend has been to redesign malls as town centers—recalling a time when such commercial districts were the heart and soul of a community. Mall–to–town center retrofits are emerging throughout the nation, especially in suburban communities, where pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use environments are highly attractive to millennials now raising families.

A panel of experts, moderated by Katie Wholey, director of climate resilience at Enterprise Community Partners, gathered at the 2025 ULI Resilience Summit in Denver to discuss how climate risk assessments are informing asset and portfolio management.

Across North America, cities are confronting a housing crisis that demands urgent, innovative responses. In Toronto, the launch of the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) in April 2020 marked a pivotal moment—an accelerated effort at the height of the pandemic to deliver safe, stable housing. Since then, unprecedented investments have been made in communities across Ontario to address housing insecurity, reshaping the province’s residential landscape.

Although video conferencing and other technological innovation has made it possible for economic activities to be dispersed, differences in growth rates, jobs, and incomes have increased, in recent decades, as regions in the Northwest and Midwest have lost population and regions in the South and West have experienced population, employment, and income growth. The negative effects of housing price increases in growing regions serve as a constraint to domestic migration and economic opportunities, especially for lower-skilled workers. In the long run, unaffordable housing prices contribute to unequal regional development and worsening income disparities. Job-rich regions need to encourage housing production.

What trends are shaping the future of the industrial sector? Four experts from ULI’s Industrial and Office Park Development Council talk about the industrial submarkets and property types that offer the greatest opportunities, challenges developers face in bringing new projects to market, ways artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are reshaping the sector, tenant priorities, and other key trends.

In the heart of London’s Covent Garden neighborhood, a complex of five Victorian-era structures—previously home to a seed merchant company, a brass and iron foundry, and a Nonconformist chapel, among other uses—have been restored and adapted into a single, cohesive office building with ground-floor retail and dining space. The three-year restoration preserved the property’s industrial heritage, yet it provides enough flexibility to meet the needs of today’s workforce.

A growing body of research indicates that physical space profoundly affects our brain health. The capacity of our buildings and public spaces to be regenerative in that regard remains largely untapped, however. The key resources for developing brain capital are brain skills—cognitive processes such as memory, attention, and critical thinking; and brain health—the overall functioning of an individual’s brain throughout that person’s life.

The Association for Real Property and Infrastructure (ARPI) has awarded a generous grant of $109,000 to the ULI Foundation to enhance cross-regional knowledge exchange and research related to infrastructure strategies, with a particular focus on collaboration between U.S. and British members. The ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate will administer the grant.

The mechanics of planning and building a major development may be familiar to real estate professionals, but the entire process can be opaque and intimidating to laypersons in the communities most directly affected. ULI’s new report, Development for Nondevelopers, aims to bridge that knowledge gap. It offers a clear, practical guide to how development projects come together—and how communities can assure the project ultimately meets local needs.

Despite a still tepid transaction market, commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations increased in the second quarter—up 66 percent compared to a year ago, and up 48 percent from the first quarter of 2025, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But what is the outlook for access to debt and equity capital in the second half of the year? Apart from interest rates, where are the biggest pain points in the market for commercial real estate financing?

Recent gifts from Turner Construction Company Foundation, Huntington Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, and Walton Family fuel initiatives

Many mixed-use projects get the hardware right. They feature a thoughtful mix of uses, beautiful buildings, and name-brand tenants. Far fewer get the “software” right—the pedestrian flow, the plaza experience, the hospitality-level service, and all the subtle details that turn a mixed-use project into something more. These elements transform a development into a vibrant, urbanesque destination—one that delivers on the promise of being a true community gathering place.

“NZI on TAP” is a new series that explores the energy and vigor participants experience on-site during Net Zero Imperative (NZI) Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs).

Esteemed developer Tom Cousins, who was born and raised in Georgia, passed away late last month at age 93. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he became not only one of the most influential real estate and urban development visionaries of our time but also a philanthropist who vowed to create lasting change—and fulfilled that promise.