A redevelopment plan for a former industrial site in Cleveland presented by a team of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students has taken top honors in the 23rd annual ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. The competition was created with a generous endowment from longtime ULI leader Gerald D. Hines, founder of the Hines real estate organization.
The ideas contest provides graduate and fourth-year undergraduate students with the opportunity to devise a comprehensive design and development scheme for a large-scale site in an urban area. The winning team will receive a prize of $35,000. The remaining three finalist teams, representing the Georgia Institute of Technology and MIT, will each receive $10,000, and another $10,000 was allocated among the honorable mention teams.
This year’s competition asked students for proposals to create a vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income area on a former industrial site in East Cleveland, Ohio. Working in partnership with the site owners, Industrial Development Advantage LLC, ULI created a challenge brief with input from local stakeholders asking the students to address issues of equity, housing affordability, access to the lakefront, sustainability, and connectivity to the surrounding communities.
“Congratulations to the four finalist teams on their outstanding proposals,” said Brad Soderwall, Managing Director, Hines. “Their work exemplifies the power of vision, collaboration, and creativity in shaping urban futures. It was inspiring to see such innovative ideas tackle the competition site’s unique challenges.”
The four teams that advanced to the final round of the competition were chosen from 83 entries by a jury of 14 leading ULI members from across the country. More information about the four finalists announced can be found here.
The winning plan, entitled “Lakeshore,” is a vision for part of the Cleveland area designed to address challenges posed by the post-COVID environment, social inequality, and climate change. The team comprised students from Harvard (Maurice el Helou, Eno Chen, Joshua Udemba) and MIT (Nathaniel Chavez-Baumberg and Thomas King).
“All four finalist teams inspired the jury with imaginative visions to transform a dormant site along Cleveland’s waterfront into a dynamic, thriving neighborhood,” said Jury Chair Thomas Hussey. “Ultimately, the Lakeshore proposal stood out for its thoughtful integration of mixed-use development, dynamic placemaking, community connectivity, and sustainable infrastructure. It’s great to see the next generation of real estate leaders working across disciplines to create community-oriented development strategies that aim to generate lasting economic impact and enhance the quality of life for residents.”
“Participating in the ULI Hines Competition pushed our team to transcend siloes and conventional development frameworks,” the winning team said in a statement. “The challenge of reimagining Cleveland’s industrial waterfront forced us to confront difficult questions about equity, resilience, and financial viability. What emerged was Lakeshore—a project that taught us how thoughtful urban interventions can simultaneously create compelling investor returns while building lasting community wealth.”
The competition jury consisted of renowned experts from diverse backgrounds in commercial real estate, land use, and design. In addition to Jury Chair Thomas Hussey, principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in Chicago, Illinois, the jury members include Adrienne Bain, managing director at JPI Companies in Charlotte, North Carolina; Paul Beegan, owner and president at Beegan Architectural Design in Cleveland, Ohio; Chris Beza, principal and commercial market director at NBBJ Design in Seattle, Washington; Kenan Bigby, founder and principal at BLD Properties in Boston, Massachusetts; Justin Chapman, senior development executive at The Integral Group in Atlanta, Georgia; Mary Cierebiej, executive director at the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission in Cleveland, Ohio; Kirsty Greer, chief development officer at Ulysses Development Group in Denver, Colorado; Amie Henry, partner and COO at Ladera Capital Partners in Austin, Texas; Ken Kalynchuk, director and principal at Project Management Consultants in Cleveland, Ohio; Trevor McIntyre, principal and global practice group director of placemaking at Arcadis in Toronto, Ontario; Liz Ptacek, principal at StepStone Group in Cleveland, Ohio; Jeff Smith, managing partner and president at Sack Capital Partners in San Francisco, California; and Clara Wineberg, principal at SCB in Boston, Massachusetts.
