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ULI is deeply saddened at the passing of visionary Los Angeles developer and ULI Life Trustee Wayne Ratkovich at the age of 82. In 1977, he founded The Ratkovich Company, a development firm specializing in urban infill and adaptive reuse projects.

Settegast, a neighborhood in Northeast Houston, is home to a resilient and tight-knit community that has mobilized in response to decades of discriminatory practices and under-resourcing. As a result of systematic neglect, Settegast residents face challenges such as displacement, gentrification, and most notably, poorer health outcomes, including the lowest life expectancy rate in Harris County. To find solutions, ULI Houston partnered with Harris County Public Health, the Houston Land Bank, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, and convened community residents and real estate leaders to build trust and chart a more equitable future for the neighborhood.

Over the past 18 months, ULI Toronto and partners forged an understanding of the trends, pressures, and challenges experienced by Toronto’s Black population to shine a light on how history is shaping the present. The team documented Black displacement and Black settlement patterns in the Toronto area, focusing on the Mount Dennis neighborhood, which has faced disinvestment. The perspectives and priorities of Mount Dennis residents were gathered to inform development priorities and future projects.

Sites in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, are home to a painful and complicated history that many neighborhoods in rapidly growing regions are familiar with. To combat the region’s history of racially biased land use and transportation decisions, ULI Northwest joined forces with local leaders to reimagine two sites: one in Tukwila, near Seattle, and the other on the edge of Portland, Oregon.

As a result of discrimination, indigenous populations in British Columbia are facing inequitable access to stable housing. Barriers to housing have led to displacement and a lack of housing opportunities for these groups. To find solutions, ULI British Columbia collaborated with Indigenous businesses, including contractors and developers, to create more housing for Indigenous people. Additionally, ULI British Columbia developed a Health Equity Resource Hub to share tools and best practices and encourage thought leadership and innovation for Indigenous partnerships in housing.

ULI Tampa Bay has proudly secured its position as the latest addition to the global cohort of ULI national and district councils participating in Art in Place, an 18-month ULI program designed to bridge the gap between artists, developers, and local communities

Ten developments take advantage of the environmental and operational benefits of geothermal energy.

As part of HSBC’s Transition Pathways series, they asked over 300 real estate developers and investors globally about how they are reducing emissions, what is accelerating their decarbonisation, and where they are investing. Explore the findings.

A winner of the 2023 ULI Asia Pacific Excellence Award. Caoyang Park is located in a residential neighborhood in the Putuo District of Shanghai along what used to be a freight railway track that went into disuse and gradually transformed into a local farmers’ market. This nearly one-kilometer-long (0.62 miles) and 10 to 15-meter-wide (32.8-49.2 ft) strip of land now serves a fresh, innovative function. Following the market’s closure in 2019, this space has been reimagined into a vibrant, multi-tiered, mixed-use park with a strong emphasis on pedestrian accessibility and community engagement.

Artificial Intelligence, or the general ability of computers to emulate human thought and learning processes and, ultimately, to perform tasks in real-world environments, has grown and evolved significantly in recent years. It’s an empirical fact: in 2022, the global AI market swelled to $136.55 billion, with projections hinting at a surge of $1.8 trillion to $2.6 trillion within the next 10 years.

Architecture can’t be art. It has a different role in society. But architecture should embrace the call of art, especially public architecture.

ULI and Heitman released a report today highlighting how investors may leverage the data resulting from government regulations that require real estate companies to disclose climate-related risks related to their properties and overall business models.

By making investments in needed improvements now, the commercial real estate industry could alter the course of climate change.

To date, the Net Zero Imperative has funded over a dozen technical assistance panels, ranging in topics from multifamily electrification to net zero new construction incentives, from ClimateTech innovations to tenant engagement for whole-building decarbonization. Localities are eager to move forward and accelerate the built environment’s journey to zero.

According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, there have been 23 confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect United States in 2023.

Many Americans are considered severely rent-burdened, as they spend more than 50 percent of their earnings on housing. For people with disabilities and the elderly, there is a triple whammy—prices are soaring, their incomes are not keeping pace, and only a fraction of housing is built to accommodate those with limited mobility.

Just outside of Houston, a development of the future is emerging—but it is probably not what you think. Instead of flying cars and sky-scraping utopias, this version of Tomorrowland has its roots firmly and sustainably planted in days gone by.

“Knot Charleston,” the development plan that earned top honors in this year’s ULI Hines Student Competition for the Americas region, was the product of extensive research, thoughtful design, and close collaboration among the winning team of five Harvard University graduate students.

Any native Angeleno who has walked even a few blocks Downtown can attest to the state of our sidewalks. If we do not invest in the public realm—in our streets, sidewalks, plazas, and parks—then we leave on the table the vital seeds of who it is we can become as a people and as a city.

University of Southern California is one of numerous U.S. colleges and universities that are expanding their presence in cities, sometimes far from their main campuses.

In 2021, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation—initially responsible for financial accounting standards—established the International Sustainability Standards Board, with the goal of developing universal, global sustainability disclosure rules. These new rules were finally published in June 2023, and go into effect in January 2024.

At the 2023 ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto, the Emerging Trends in Real Estate® session, hosted by the Institute’s University Connections program, shed light on younger generation’s perceptions of suburbs and the shifting preferences of students when it comes to choosing where to live and work post-graduation.

Foundations have given over $10 million to bolster the Institute’s efforts to help communities across the United States.

ULI visiting fellow Yvonne Yeung, who authored Building 15-Minute Communities: A Leadership Guide, recently appeared on the Talking Headways podcast. She chatted about how the guide can help create good development that reduces the need to drive, and supports climate emissions reduction goals.

Atlanta Tech Village owns and occupies a 100,000-square-foot (92,903 sq m) building that was built in 1985 in Atlanta’s Buckhead submarket. Ownership’s goals were increasing member (tenant) comfort, lowering operating expenses, and maximizing decarbonization opportunities.

This Urban Landseries introduces real estate and built environment professionals to Indigenous-led organizations working on issues of environmental and climate justice in the built environment as they pertain to Indigenous communities. In addition to profiling the work of these organizations, the series covers why these intersections are critical to understand within the wider conversation on climate change and social equity. This iteration is a follow up to a similar series of profiles created in 2020 on environmental justice.

Indigenous Climate Action is an Indigenous-led organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors, and land defenders from communities and regions across the country. We believe that Indigenous Peoples’ rights and knowledge systems are critical to developing solutions to the climate crisis and achieving climate justice.

MASS Design Group is a mission-driven organization founded to support partners in delivering innovative capital projects that fundamentally improve lives and act as enablers of shared prosperity. The mission of the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab is to close the wealth gap in Indian Country through culturally responsive housing development and Native home ownership.

ULI Indiana is the latest addition to the global cohort of ULI national and district councils participating in ULI’s Art in Place program. Working both individually and as a group, each council aims to connect artists, developers, and community voices to drive more inclusive and participatory real estate outcomes.

More than 30 internationally-renowned real estate industry leaders have been elected to four-year terms as ULI Global Governing Trustees, while numerous other industry luminaries have been added or reappointed to the Institute’s Global Board of Directors and regional executive committees.