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Ron Nyren

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Ron Nyren is a freelance architecture, urban planning, and real estate writer based in the San Francisco Bay area.

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Design and Planning

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Awards

Project Profiles: Harmonizing History and Modernity at Tokyo’s Otemachi One

Otemachi One, the largest mixed-use development in Tokyo’s Otemachi District, combines offices, shops, event venues, a luxury hotel, and expansive public green space at the threshold of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace. The development occupies a prime site that was previously home to three office buildings, including Mitsui & Co.’s former headquarters.

March 2, 2026

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Design and Planning

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Hong Kong

Project Profiles: Regenerating China’s Urban Villages

Shenzhen’s Nantou Ancient City project represents a groundbreaking approach to revitalizing China’s historic urban villages in a way that preserves their cultural heritage and community fabric. After China’s government designated Shenzhen as a Special Economic Zone in 1980, the city’s more than 400 urban villages grew rapidly to provide informal housing for an influx of migrant workers. The result: high-density residential areas that maximized rental income but often compromised on fire safety and hygiene standards.

February 18, 2026

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Development and Construction

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Public Spaces

How 5 World-Class Libraries Are Reimagining Community Space in Cities

Newly constructed libraries serve as “third spaces” and offer connectivity and multimedia in addition to community resources.

February 3, 2026

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Design and Planning

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Awards

Project Profile: Once a Film Roll Packing Plant, Now a Sustainable Mixed-Use Community

In the Belgian municipality of Edegem, a 20-minute bike ride from Antwerp’s city center, a camera film roll packing plant has become Minerve, a biodiverse, sustainable mixed-use residential and commercial neighborhood.

January 29, 2026

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Capital Markets and Finance

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Resilience and Sustainability

C-PACE Financing Gains Momentum as Developers Rethink Office Assets

In 2022, Philadelphia-based development firm Post Brothers bought two office buildings on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., with plans to convert them into approximately 530 residential units. Despite the site’s proximity to Dupont Circle and a coveted residential area, assembling a viable capital stack proved more challenging than anticipated. Ultimately, a $465 million Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy loan from Nuveen Green Capital in December of 2025—billed as the largest ever originated under the program—made the conversion possible.

January 26, 2026

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Design and Planning

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Awards

Project Profile: Warsaw’s New Cultural Landmark Sets History in Stone

For almost 200 years, the Warsaw Citadel in the heart of Poland’s capital was a restricted military and administrative area, cut off from public access. With the recent opening of the Polish History Museum, as well as the new Polish Army Museum, the 19th-century fortress’s 74-acre (30 ha) grounds now serve as a multifunctional facility and park that both preserves and showcases the country’s rich cultural heritage.

January 26, 2026

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Development and Construction

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Office

Project Profiles: A Community Foundation Headquarters Aims to Catalyze Development

Established in 1914, the Cleveland Foundation is a community-oriented, philanthropic organization dedicated to investing in worthy individuals and nonprofit organizations in greater Cleveland, Ohio. With the lease running out on its existing headquarters in the city’s Playhouse Square district, the foundation decided to build its own headquarters, but in an intentional way that would spur economic development in one of the city’s neglected pockets.

January 16, 2026

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Development and Construction

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Toronto

Project Profiles: Integrating Market-Rate and Affordable Housing at Canary Landing’s Maple House

Infrastructure Ontario’s Provincial Affordable Housing Lands Program aims to create a mix of market-rate housing and permanent, sustainable, affordable housing on surplus land in greater Toronto. For its first effort, the agency chose Dream Asset Management, Kilmer Group, and Tricon Residential to develop a mixed-use community with 2,500 apartments on a former brownfield industrial site.

January 8, 2026

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Development and Construction

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ULI Europe

Project Profile: Modern Headquarters in a Historic Telephone Exchange

Steps from the Place de l’Europe in Paris, the French real estate company Covivio has recast a historic telephone exchange as its headquarters. Dubbed “L’Atelier,” the complex showcases the firm’s expertise, values, and culture; houses 250 Paris employees; and supports the company’s three business lines: office, hotel, and residential.

January 6, 2026

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Development and Construction

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Resilience and Sustainability

Project Profiles: A Sustainable Tech Workplace for the Future in Redmond

Since Microsoft established its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, in 1986, the company’s campus has grown from four buildings to more than 100. The East Campus Modernization Project is the latest addition: replacing several older structures with ones designed to meet the demands of the modern hybrid workplace—and embody the company’s commitment to both employee well-being and environmental stewardship.

December 19, 2025

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Development and Construction

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Europe and the Middle East

5 Airport-Connected Hotels Tap Local Culture for the Holidays

Holiday travelers may notice that airport-connected hotels are incorporating more regional touches, from façade to dining. Here are five examples that offer the ultimate luxury, a short walk from guest room to terminal.

December 15, 2025

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Resilience and Sustainability

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Attainable Housing

UL10: Ten Conversions to Residential Use

Multifamily buildings occupy structures with storied pasts. The rise of remote work and the continued housing shortage have led to a surge in the number of apartments being carved out of former office space—70,700 in 2025 compared to 23,100 in 2022, according to RentCafe. Developers are increasingly turning to structures with former lives—as offices or industrial or commercial buildings—to create multifamily housing that gives residents dwelling spaces that feel rooted in place and connected to the broader narrative of their communities.

December 1, 2025

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Urban Land Contributors

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Ron Nyren

Beth Mattson-Teig

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Michele Lerner

Hannah Miet

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Sibley Fleming

Shraeya Madhu

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Ben Johnson

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Vanessa Elena DeSantis

Karen Jordan

George Fatheree

Kara Kokernak

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Peter David Cavaluzzi, FAIA

Brett Widness

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Patrick J. Kiger

Bill Vitek

Capital Markets and Finance

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Universities and Educational Facilities

How University/Developer Urban Partnerships Are Evolving Amid Uncertainty

Molly Maybrun, chief development officer of local developer Fifth Space, and Wallace Whittier, senior real estate officer for University of California, San Francisco, spoke at the 2025 ULI Fall Meeting about their collaboration to build a new proton therapy cancer center at Fifth Space’s Dogpatch Power Station, a multiphase master-planned mixed-use development on the waterfront at the southern edge of San Francisco’s Mission Bay.

December 1, 2025

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Development and Construction

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Multifamily

Offsite Evolved: Realizing the Promise of Prefab, Modular, and 3D-Printing Construction

“The primary advantage every modular project has, if you do it right, is time savings,” said Mark Donahue—principal, design, for Lowney Architecture—during the “Offsite Evolved: How Today’s Prefab, Modular, and 3D-Printing Solutions Deliver Proven Speed, Savings, and Scale” panel at the ULI Fall Meeting in San Francisco. “You can, on a, say, 24-month construction project, save six to eight weeks.”

November 18, 2025

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Design and Planning

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San Francisco

Canva Chief Evangelist Guy Kawasaki: 10 Principles for Innovation

Guy Kawasaki—chief evangelist at Canva, former chief evangelist for Apple, and bestselling author—summed up insights gleaned from his years in tech and as host of the Remarkable People podcast, interviewing such luminaries as Margaret Atwood, Tony Fauci, Jane Goodall, and Steve Wozniak.

November 17, 2025

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Development and Construction

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San Francisco

Building Urban Strength in the San Francisco Bay Region: Insights from the 2025 Lewis Center Sustainability Forum

The 2025 Lewis Center Sustainability Forum, held during the ULI Fall Meeting in San Francisco, explored ways that local leaders in planning, policy, and development are advancing urban strength and adaptability amid increasing climate and social stresses.

November 17, 2025

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Capital Markets and Finance

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Finance & Investment

The New Landscape of Commercial Real Estate Lending: Debt, Downtowns, and Data

While the full impact of the pandemic has yet to be realized, commercial real estate faces new uncertainties, including questions about the AI boom’s longevity, the spending strength of the U.S. consumer, and debt sustainability. In response to increased competition for quality deals, commercial real estate firms are restructuring their operations, using diverse data sources, accessing new capital, and forming new partnerships.

November 10, 2025

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Capital Markets and Finance

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Dallas-Fort Worth

PwC and ULI Report Reveals the 2026 Real Estate Trends Transforming Where We Live, Work and Invest

Drawing on insights from more than 1,700 leading real estate investors, developers, lenders and advisors across the U.S. and Canada, the report identifies key opportunities, risks and market shifts that will shape the industry in the coming year.

November 6, 2025

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Design and Planning

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San Francisco

Reviving Market Street: Fresh ideas spark new hope for San Francisco’s historic corridor

For decades, civic leaders have tried to revitalize Market Street, San Francisco’s central thoroughfare, only to see their efforts founder. “I sometimes call it the great white whale of San Francisco,” says Eric Tao, managing partner at L37 Development in San Francisco and co-chair of ULI San Francisco. “Every new mayor, every new planning director, every new economic development director has chased that white whale.” This year, however, an international competition of ideas hosted and run by ULI San Francisco, with support from the ULI Foundation, generated fresh momentum for reimagining the boulevard. The competition drew 173 submissions from nine countries and sparked new conversations about the future of downtown San Francisco.

October 31, 2025

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Resilience and Sustainability

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Data Centers

Project Profiles: EcoDataCenter 1 Powers Its Servers with 100 Percent Renewable Energy in Sweden

Data centers have a reputation for high energy use. EcoDataCenter 1 in Falun, Sweden, offers an alternate model: its two data centers, DCA and DCB, derive all of their power from nearby renewable energy sources; 75 percent comes from hydropower and 25 percent from wind.

October 22, 2025

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Design and Planning

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Asia Pacific

Project Profiles: Upper House’s “Dancing Balconies” Reshape Brisbane’s Skyline

Across the Brisbane River from Brisbane, Australia’s central business district, the 33-story Upper House residential tower stands out in the city’s skyline with its “dancing balconies” and curving timber ribbons inspired by the prominent roots of Queensland’s native Moreton Bay fig tree.

October 6, 2025

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Development and Construction

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San Francisco

ULI Meeting Tour Preview: San Francisco’s Mission Rock Mixed-Use Waterfront Neighborhood

A waterfront site across McCovey Cove from San Francisco’s Oracle Park had long served as a parking lot for Giants baseball fans—but little more. Today, the property is home to Mission Rock, an ambitious mixed-use development undertaken in a public-private partnership between the Giants, the Port of San Francisco, and global real estate development company Tishman Speyer. Attendees of the 2025 ULI Fall Meeting will have the opportunity to tour Mission Rock and learn how an unusually collaborative approach to development has created a neighborhood that goes beyond serving sports fans.

September 29, 2025

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Design and Planning

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Adaptive Use and Building Reuse

ULI Award Winners: A Postmodern Masterpiece’s Second Act

Designed by noted architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and constructed in 1984, 550 Madison Avenue has a curved roof pediment that reminded enough people of Chippendale furniture to earn the nickname “the Chippendale Building.” Globally recognized as an influential postmodern masterpiece, it once served as headquarters for AT&T and later Sony, then became the youngest edifice to be designated a New York City landmark. The Olayan Group purchased it in 2016 to rework the single-tenant tower into a multi-tenant, mixed-use office building that prioritizes occupant wellness and environmental sustainability.

September 23, 2025

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Design and Planning

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Adaptive Use and Building Reuse

ULI Award Winners: Once a Warehouse, Now a Sanctuary for the Unhoused

In a historically redlined neighborhood of Minneapolis, a former industrial warehouse has become a supportive, low-barrier sanctuary for the unsheltered. Up to 200 residents can live at Avivo Village, each in their own private sleeping unit. Single-occupant shower rooms, nongendered restrooms, and communal kitchenettes and coffee areas are all ADA-compliant.

September 19, 2025

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Design and Planning

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Awards

ULI Award Winners: Long-Term Affordable Housing That Highlights Community-Building in Sydney Suburbs

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.

August 28, 2025

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Issues and Trends

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Mixed-Use

Repositioning U.S. Retail: More Malls as Mixed-Use Town Centers

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.

August 26, 2025

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Issues and Trends

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Industrial Development

Product Council Outlook for Industrial Development

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.

August 19, 2025

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Resilience and Sustainability

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London

ULI Award Winners: Reimagining Victorian Heritage for the Modern Workplace

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.

August 18, 2025

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Inside the ULI Foundation

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Leadership

Association for Real Property and Infrastructure Grants $109,000 for ULI’s Global Infrastructure Initiatives

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.

August 13, 2025

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Philanthropic Impact

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ULI Leadership

ULI District Councils and Foundation Partner to Secure External Grants for Community Impact

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

August 11, 2025

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ULI Leadership

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Philanthropic Impact

Vincent Ilustre Takes the Helm as New ULI Foundation President

In April, the Urban Land Institute welcomed Vincent Ilustre as the new president of the ULI Foundation, appointing him to lead philanthropic initiatives and strengthen donor engagement. Ilustre was drawn to the role by the strong connection members have with ULI. “There’s a genuine passion for this organization,” he said. “Members don’t just join ULI—they invest in it because it’s helped shape their professional journeys.”

July 29, 2025

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Issues and Trends

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San Francisco

ULI San Francisco Names Winners of Market Street Reimagined Competition

ULI San Francisco and the Civic Joy Fund have announced the winners of the Market Street Reimagined competition. This international competition of ideas, which attracted 173 submissions from nine countries, challenged entrants to create a new vision for the city’s main thoroughfare that would draw more visitors and businesses to the area. A distinguished jury, hosted by San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie, divided the $100,000 prize among the winning teams and designated eight additional entries as honorable mentions.

July 22, 2025

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Issues and Trends

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Dallas-Fort Worth

ULI Advisory Services Panel, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber Partner to Combat Displacement in Historic Northside Neighborhood

A team of ULI experts visited Fort Worth in September 2024 to develop anti-displacement strategies for the city’s historic, majority Hispanic Northside neighborhood, which faces mounting pressure from two nearby megadevelopments, as well as broader metropolitan growth trends that drove up the area’s property values 60 percent from 2016 to 2021.

July 18, 2025

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Capital Markets and Finance

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Awards

Pioneering Affordable Housing Preservation in Austin

In 2015, Austin, Texas’ mayor at the time, Steve Adler, brought together business leaders, real estate professionals, and housing experts to take on the crisis in affordable rental housing and the risks it posed to the city’s workforce stability and economic sustainability. With insights and research from a ULI Technical Advisory Panel and ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, the Austin Housing Conservancy fund was born, offering a revolutionary approach to preserving workforce housing. Now known as the Texas Housing Conservancy, the fund became the nation’s first to combine a nonprofit investment manager, Affordable Central Texas, with an open-end private equity fund.

July 16, 2025

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Leadership

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ULI Leadership

Remembering Joseph C. Canizaro, Past ULI Chair and New Orleans Development Pioneer

Joseph C. Canizaro, a past chair and trustee of ULI, passed away at age 88 on June 20, 2025. A member of ULI for more than 50 years, Canizaro built one of New Orleans’ most influential real estate development companies, Columbus Properties, which helped shape the city’s skyline.

July 8, 2025

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Design and Planning

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Awards

Project Profiles: Singapore’s First Net-Positive Energy Nature Park

Once the site of an abandoned quarry, Singapore’s Rifle Range Nature Park now serves as a buffer zone protecting one of the island nation’s last primary rainforests, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, from encroaching development and human activity. Located to the reserve’s south, Rifle Range is Singapore’s first net-positive energy nature park, harvesting more energy than its annual operational requirements.

July 7, 2025

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