Best Practices
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.
Five new case studies that meet the criteria have been selected as the Terwilliger Center’s 2025 award winners: Market Street Village in San Diego, Sendero Verde in New York City, The Aster in Salt Lake City, The Kelsey Ayer Station in San José, and The Wilder in Nashville. Each of them offers an important, in-depth look at the financing structures, development strategies, community partnerships, and public policies that make such ambitious projects viable.
The ULI Americas District Council Showcase of Excellence Awards celebrates achievement by District Councils as it relates to ULI’s mission and primary areas of focus, with particular attention given to programs that are both innovative in their format or approach to the subject matter and replicable at other District Councils. The ULI Americas region’s 58 District Councils submit the best of more than 2,000 programs held each year, with awards given, in each category, for District Councils with fewer than 600 members, and for District Councils with more than 600 members.
Singapore real estate veterans at a Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) event last month suggested that finding your own voice, challenging yourself, and not over-planning can help women in the industry to progress in interesting and worthwhile careers.
The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced two winners for this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award, as well as two winners for the Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing.
For more than four decades, the Urban Land Institute has identified excellence in real estate and land use through awards that highlight projects and people. All these programs rely on the contributions of ULI members who donate their time and expertise as jurors and, often, cover the cost of their travel to support the awards.
As creative placemaking has proliferated in the real estate industry, questions regarding its costs and benefits have often surfaced: What is the cost and what is the business case? Does it enhance the value of real estate? And what value is delivered?
San Francisco can create a more commercially vibrant and socially inclusive downtown that attracts a diverse range of industries and employers, advances housing attainability, and promotes stronger leadership, according to findings released by ULI.
While private infrastructure can help to fill many gaps where municipal budgets are constrained and standards for safety and accessibility can be maintained, it can come with challenges as well. Where are private streets most feasible and effective, how does context matter, and what policies can ensure that they are done right?
The first ULI Executive Convening on Embodied Carbon—held on January 17th at ULI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and hosted by ULI’s Decarbonization Program—launched the first of many convenings to build stronger partnerships across the industry enabling accelerated advancement on sustainability improvements and beyond.
ULI has selected architect Hans Papke as the recipient of the 2021–2022 Apgar Thought Leader Award, which recognizes the authors of outstanding written works for Urban Land.
As we close the books on 2022, we look back on the topics that resonated most with the online readers of Urban Landin the past year.
A recent ULI webinar explored how property managers must engage their tenants to achieve carbon reduction and other building-wide goals driven by environmental, social, and governance initiatives.
Five ULI District Councils across the United States have been selected to participate in a new program focused on advancing action on equity in parks and open space over a 12-month period. Through the District Council Cohort for Park Equity, local teams will engage in two-day Technical Assistance Panels that consider specific questions related to park equity and access in their communities. The program is supported by The JPB Foundation.
ULI Greenprint has announced that its membership has grown to include more than 70 private companies, demonstrating the real estate industry’s momentum toward and commitment to decarbonization. Through measurement, benchmarking, knowledge sharing, and implementation of best practices, ULI Greenprint members strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 for buildings under operational control.
Integrated System Packages (ISPs), developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, are packaged efficiency solutions to be incorporated into the real-estate cycle. ISPs reduce transaction costs for building owners and mitigate disruptions to building occupants.
The Institute has announced 21 finalists for its 2022 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence, one of the most prestigious awards programs in the real estate industry. This year’s finalists include 19 developments in the United States and two in Canada.
BREEAM, the sustainability assessment method developed by BRE Global (‘BRE’), has announced that Mountain Technology Center—MetLife Investment Management’s development featuring five state-of-the-art manufacturing warehouses in Tracy, California—is the first U.S. development to earn BREEAM International New Construction (‘INC’) certification.
ULI has kicked off a new project in partnership with several major real estate organizations–including Allianz Real Estate, Catella, Hines, Redevco and Schroders Capital–that will support the built environment in Europe on its urgent journey to carbon neutrality.
ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance’s annual report found a 12.4 percent reduction in carbon emissions in 2020 compared with an average 3.5 percent fall in previous years. In addition, the report found that real estate owners took advantage of reduced occupancy during the pandemic to double the implementation of energy efficiency projects.
ULI has launched a first-of-its-kind central resource cataloging innovative parking policy reforms intended to promote more efficient use of land and creation of healthier neighborhoods.
In an engaging session, organizational psychologist Alison Fragale and Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) Americas chair Kelly Nagel probed the topics of networking, allyship, and frameworks for raising the visibility of underrepresented groups in work environments.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all to rethink everything we thought we knew about productivity and the workplace. As we have learned, the answers are far from straightforward, but they are nevertheless emerging. During a 2021 ULI Virtual Spring Meeting session, real estate experts explored how employees’ preferences and performance are leading to a suite of workplaces—a “multiverse of work” in which homes, corporate offices, and various other locations will combine to enable a high-performing workforce.
A recent ULI webinar—with member speakers from ULI Toronto, ULI British Columbia, and ULI Alberta—addressed what leading real estate companies are doing to decarbonize their operations and development in anticipation of regulatory requirements.
Two Heitman executives explained how their firm applies climate risk analysis—at both the asset level and the community level—when evaluating investments. They spoke on a Virtual Fall Meeting panel announcing a new research report, Climate Risk and Real Estate: Emerging Practices for Market Assessment, recently issued by ULI and Heitman.
Christina Contreras, the ULI/Martin Bucksbaum Senior Visiting Fellow, discusses how she and ULI staff are researching how privately owned and managed “third places” can better contribute to individual and community health and well-being.
A member co-chair of the ULI Washington Diversity and Inclusion Working Group writes about the recent events in D.C. and beyond.
ULI has received the 2020 Excellence in Energy Star Promotion Award for its efforts in promoting energy-efficient and sustainable buildings, and its thought leadership on energy conservation throughout the real estate sector.
The global impact on human health and economic stability resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak is likely to quickly and dramatically elevate health and wellness as key factors influencing urban design and development as well as building management and operations, according to industry experts convened by ULI for a webinar on the impacts of the pandemic. The event was the first of a series of webinars being offered to explore how various aspects of the real estate industry are being affected by the virus and the industry’s response.
