Shopping centers, having survived the worst contraction in 50 years, are often turning to restaurants and specialty retailers to replace department stores as anchor tenants.

Two parks have been selected as winning projects in the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Urban Open Space Award competition: The Parks and Waterfront at Southeast False Creek, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the Yards Park, located in Washington, D.C.

The new Exxon Mobil Corp. headquarters, rising north of downtown Houston, is one of the largest construction projects in the United States. About 80 percent of the campus will remain in its natural state or be planted with native species. Water use will also be reduced compared with a conventional development of similar size through recycling of rainwater and smart irrigation systems.

In nearly every way, the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago does not fit the standard definition of a Whole Foods target market. And yet the high-end grocer announced this week plans to open a store there in 2016, having also opened a new store recently in midtown Detroit.

What for a decade had been referred to either as the “Bloomingdale Trail” or simply “the Bloomingdale” will be referred to going forward as “the 606,” it was announced in June by the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit organization that conserves land for public open space. The number denotes the zip-code prefix shared by all Chicagoans and alludes to the trail’s origin as a rail line.

The designer of West Philadelphia’s Cira Centre, architect Cesar Pelli talked about the role of place making in two of his current projects at a recent ULI conference in Philadelphia.

Major changes resulted both directly and indirectly from the University of Pennsylvania’s 2004 purchase of a U.S. Postal Service property adjacent to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, according to speakers at ULI’s “Place Making 2013: New Drivers, New Partners” conference in June.

Set to open in July 2013 at 2,074 feet (632 m), Shanghai Tower will be the tallest building in China and second tallest in the world. With nine zones, each comprising 12 to 15 stories and dedicated to retail, office, hotel, and observation/cultural facility uses, the building will be a self-contained city, says Dan Winey, regional managing principal for Gensler.

The 21st-century challenge facing Hilton Head, a resort town steeped in 20th-century tradition: how to reach beyond the affluent retirees drawn to its famed golf resorts to a broader market that includes baby boomers and members of generations X and Y who enjoy its pristine beaches, but who have many other recreational and cultural interests as well.

With an inclination for hiring the young and entrusting them with much responsibility, Charles Fraser employed many budding real estate professionals who eventually became accomplished leaders in both the industry and ULI, including four who became ULI chairmen.