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Ron Nyren

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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ULI Asia Pacific
ULI Global Awards for Excellence: 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.
January 15, 2025
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Ron Nyren
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Issues and Trends
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ULI Leadership
Melville Charitable Trust Grants ULI $75,000 to Seek Real Estate Solutions in the Affordable Housing Crisis
The Melville Charitable Trust awarded $75,000 to the ULI Foundation to support the development of 10 Principles for Addressing Homelessness: A Guide for Real Estate & Finance. Awarded in October 2024, the one-year grant is the trust’s first donation to the Urban Land Institute (ULI). It will let ULI’s Homeless to Housed (H2H) initiative create a comprehensive guide intended to connect real estate leaders with not-for-profit housing and service providers and collectively identify ways of catalyzing the production and preservation of more deeply affordable housing that is both cost-effective and rapidly deployable.
January 10, 2025
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
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Mixed Use and Multi-Use
ULI Global Awards for Excellence: Once a Film Roll Packing Plant, Now a Sustainable Mixed-Use Community
In the Belgian municipality of Edegem, just a 20-minute bike ride from Antwerp’s city center, a brownfield site that once stored camera film has become a biodiverse, sustainable mixed-use residential and commercial neighborhood.
January 8, 2025
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Ron Nyren
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Awards
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Public Buildings - Libraries and Museums
ULI Global Awards for Excellence: Warsaw’s New Cultural Landmark Sets History in Stone
For two hundred years, the Warsaw Citadel at 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’ 74-acre (30 ha) grounds now serve as a multifunctional cultural and educational facility and park that preserves and showcases the country’s heritage.
December 17, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Development and Construction
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Architecture – Design
UL10: Modern Museums
10 museum buildings strengthen ties to communities and the public realm
December 16, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
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New York City
Outlook for Downtown Rejuvenation
Four experts discuss how to rebuild urban cores by bringing the public and private sectors together to create thriving downtowns that entice remote workers to return to the office and broaden the mix of uses.
December 9, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
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Awards
ULI Global Awards for Excellence: A Coca-Cola Bottling Plant Becomes an Entertainment and Cultural Hub
The transformation of Indianapolis’s historic Coca-Cola bottling plant into the Bottleworks District represents one of Indiana’s most ambitious adaptive use projects.
December 3, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Finance & Investment
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Multifamily
ULI Global Awards for Excellence: Pioneering Affordable Housing Preservation in Austin
With insights and research from a ULI Technical Advisory Panel and ULI’s Terwilliger Center, the Austin Housing Conservancy fund, a revolutionary approach to preserving workforce housing, was born. 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.
November 19, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Capital Markets and Finance
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Recreation and Entertainment
Convention Centers Integrate with the Urban Realm to Stay Competitive
Covid-19 may have caused a precipitous decline in convention crowds in 2020, but it did not halt long-range plans to overhaul and expand convention centers in a number of key U.S. cities. Today that foresight is bearing fruit with grand new facilities able to host larger industry and trade gatherings than ever before.
October 29, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Placemaking and Placekeeping
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Urban Design
A Sense of Place—Revitalizing Downtowns Through Smart Placemaking
Can third spaces help downtowns bounce back from the pandemic?
July 30, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Inside the ULI Foundation
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ULI Leadership
Tom Toomey to Lead ULI Foundation as New Chair
Thomas W. Toomey, chairman and chief executive officer of UDR Inc., will become the new chair of the ULI Foundation on July 1, 2024. A longtime ULI member and chair of the ULI Global Board of Directors from 2017 to 2019, Toomey brings extensive leadership experience and a deep commitment to philanthropic support for ULI’s mission.
July 22, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
UL10: Next-Generation Design Firms
Ten projects showcase clever urban interventions spearheaded by principals under age 50
July 22, 2024
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Ron Nyren
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Urban Land Contributors
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Ron Nyren
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Beth Mattson-Teig
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Michele Lerner
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Hannah Miet
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Sibley Fleming
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Shraeya Madhu
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Ben Johnson
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Vanessa Elena DeSantis
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Karen Jordan
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George Fatheree
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Kara Kokernak
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Peter David Cavaluzzi, FAIA
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Brett Widness
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Patrick J. Kiger
Bill Vitek
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Development and Construction
ULI Outlook for Green Affordable Multifamily Housing
Members of ULI’s Sustainable Development Council and Affordable/Workforce Housing Council discuss sustainability strategies for affordable multifamily housing, plus the challenges and opportunities for net zero.
June 6, 2022
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Ron Nyren
hotelmagdalena_lakeflato_619
Resilience and Sustainability
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Office
Sustainably Growing the Mass Timber Industry
Mass timber has come a long way in the United States in the past eight years. Fulfilling mass timber’s green potential means responsible forest management and planning for what happens to the timber after the building’s end of life.
June 1, 2022
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
Adapting an Art Deco Banking Center: The Rebirth of First National Center of Oklahoma City
For much of the 20th century, the banking hall at the First National Center in Oklahoma City served as a showpiece for the downtown financial district.
May 3, 2022
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Ron Nyren
Resilience and Sustainability
The Rising Tide of ESG Goals for Real Estate Companies
At the “Real Estate Companies: The Front Line of Climate Change” session on day three of the 2022 ULI Spring Meeting in San Diego, moderator Christine Robinson, partner, sustainability and ESG services, for Deloitte & Touche, asked experts about the challenges and successes in mainstreaming environment, social, and governance (ESG) accounting and reporting.
April 21, 2022
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Ron Nyren
Resilience and Sustainability
How Federal Agencies Are Investing in Sustainability, Resilience, and Equity
Representatives from four federal agencies describing the financing opportunities their agencies offer at a panel at the 2022 ULI Spring Meeting in San Diego.
April 21, 2022
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Ron Nyren
Resilience and Sustainability
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Spring Meeting
Future-Proofing Real Estate Assets for a Net Zero Future
Over the past five years, more than 300 cities in the United States have committed to meet the targets of the Paris Climate Accords. However, as of 2020, only a handful have made meaningful progress in developing climate action plans, said Alaina Ladner, energy and sustainability practice lead for JLL. “Cities, companies, investors, and tenants are looking to the building sector to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals,” she added, speaking at the “Future-Proofing Asset Value: The Pathway to Net Zero” panel as part of the 2022 ULI Spring Meeting in San Diego.
April 20, 2022
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
UL10: The Green Outdoors
Ten landscaped open spaces give communities some breathing room.
April 1, 2022
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Ron Nyren
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Development and Construction
Product Council Outlook for Public/Private Partnerships
ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: Members of ULI’s Public/Private Partnership Councils discuss how public/private collaborations are evolving; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; project types with strong potential for public/private partnerships in the coming year; ways to better incorporate provisions for sustainability, resilience, and equity; and other trends.
Members Only
March 4, 2022
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
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Spring Meeting
ULI Spring Meeting Tour: A Ballpark Sparks Development in San Diego’s East Village
Attendees of ULI’s Spring Meeting will have the opportunity to tour San Diego’s ballpark and nearby developments that are recently completed, under construction, or in the works.
February 25, 2022
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
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Spring Meeting
2022 ULI Spring Meeting Tour: New Campus Connections at the University of California, San Diego
At the ULI Spring Meeting in San Diego this year, attendees will have the opportunity to tour the University of California, San Diego, campus in La Jolla and witness recently completed and under-construction buildings that integrate living and learning, foster collaboration and entrepreneurship among students, and appeal to members of the wider community. The changes on campus benefit from the new Mid-Coast Trolley extension route, which opened in November 2021.
February 15, 2022
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
UL10: The Art of Parking
Ten inventive approaches to stashing vehicles enliven the urban environment.
February 11, 2022
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
UL10: Adapted for Creative Uses
The following 10 projects—all completed during the past five years—include museums that display art in former produce warehouses and decommissioned cheese factory buildings and libraries in an old post office and a former temple.
November 9, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Market Trends
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Emerging Trends
Outlook for Urban Revitalization
ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: How can urban cores rebound from the pandemic? Members of ULI’s Urban Revitalization councils discuss the pandemic’s potential long-term effects on development in urban cores, opportunities for creative redevelopment, steps that municipalities can take, ways to enhance resilience in urban cores, and other trends.
Members Only
November 9, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Economy, Market & Trends
Entrepreneurial Life Lessons from a Shark: Daymond John’s Five Fundamentals for Success in Business and Life
At the closing general session of ULI’s 2021 Fall Meeting, Daymond John—investor on ABC’s Shark TankTV show, presidential ambassador for global entrepreneurship, bestselling author, and CEO of global fashion brand FUBU—summed up the lessons he has learned from life and business. After waiting tables at Red Lobster in the late 1980s, he began sewing wool hats popular with hip-hop fans and, by befriending stars such as LL Cool J, built a multimillion-dollar business.
October 14, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
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Fall Meeting
Building a Beacon of Hope on Chicago’s South Side: The Obama Presidential Center
Slated to open in Jackson Park in 2025, the Obama Presidential Center will incorporate a museum, a forum building with collaborative and creative spaces, a large plaza, a new branch of the Chicago Public Library topped by a fruit and vegetable garden, a great lawn, a children’s play area, an athletic center, and winding landscaped paths, said representatives from the Obama Foundation at the 2021 Fall Meeting in Chicago.
October 12, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Development and Construction
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Office
Fall Meeting Tour: BMO Tower + Fulton East
At the 2021 ULI Fall Meeting in Chicago, attendees will have the chance to tour two new office towers and hear from their development teams about the measures taken to adapt to the new circumstances.
August 24, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
UL10: Aviation Facilities
Ten airport designs enhance the travel experience and highlight their local and regional contexts.
August 23, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Development and Construction
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Mixed-Use
Fall Meeting Preview: Touring Wrigleyville’s New Mixed-Use Entertainment District
Those who attend the 2021 ULI Fall Meeting in Chicago will have the opportunity to tour mixed-use development near Wrigley Field.
August 18, 2021
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Ron Nyren
livingwall_800
Development and Construction
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Emerging Trends
Outlook for Airport Development
ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: What is coming for travel services, concessions, commercial development, and logistics?
Members Only
August 4, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Resilience and Sustainability
Making the Numbers Work for Greener Affordable Housing in Chicago
A Chicago affordable housing provider is reducing energy cost and overhead by installing higher insulation levels and more efficient heating and cooling.
August 4, 2021
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Ron Nyren
41st-street-bridge_800
Design and Planning
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Chicago
UL10: Pedestrian Bridges
Ten bridges for walkers and bicyclists creatively span waterways, roads, and railway tracks.
June 28, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Resilience and Sustainability
Industry Outlook for Responsible Property Investment
Members of ULI’s Responsible Property Investment Council discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on real estate investment, strategies for navigating through economic uncertainty, the rising profile of sustainability measures, and other trends.
Members Only
June 7, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Design and Planning
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Innovation Districts & Corridors
UL10: Extra-Green Buildings
Ten new buildings exemplify sustainable design creativity.
March 29, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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Development and Construction
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ULI Asia Pacific
Outlook for Technology: Asia Pacific
Members of ULI’s Asia Pacific Tech Council discuss the potential long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the real estate industry.
March 15, 2021
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Ron Nyren
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