At ULI Chicago’s October gathering at the new 73-story 1000M apartment tower, located at 1000 S. Michigan Ave., key members of the building’s development, architecture and construction teams hosted a tour of the project and enlightened attendees with a panel discussion on the history behind the skyscraper’s signature cantilever.

The construction landscape has largely held steady across the United States and Canada.

The ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate is pleased to announce its two newest board members: Esther An and Collete English Dixon.

Since the 1980s, the Dallas suburb of Plano has attracted some of the country’s biggest corporate headquarters and established itself as a hub for major employers. But how did Plano revamp to meet the goals of a changing economy and a changing community? The city made a pivot that has been echoed in growing cities around the country: a major shift toward investing in parks and activating green space.

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.

From resilient parks to bold adaptive reuse, this year’s winners redefine urban innovation and community impact across the Americas

In a landmark moment for California housing policy, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two transformative bills into law in June 2025—AB 130 and SB 131. They fundamentally reshape how the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) applies to infill housing. Enacted as part of the state’s broader budget package, these reforms remove major procedural barriers for urban multifamily projects and signal a new direction in the state’s effort to address housing affordability through increased supply.

ULI is proud to announce partnerships with seven public agencies in California and Nevada that are working to advance resilience in urban planning and real estate development in their communities. The organizations are partnering with their local ULI District Councils as part of a larger effort aimed at connecting public sector leaders to ULI’s technical assistance, networks, and other resources and helping cities prepare for the impacts of climate change and other environmental vulnerabilities.

Six months after urban wildfires devastated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, signs of rebuilding are evident. Although the landscape still resembles a charred war zone, many residential lots have been cleared with assistance from FEMA. In Altadena and Pacific Palisades—the communities that, together, lost more than 16,000 structures—some homeowners are overcoming huge hurdles, such as permitting and steep construction costs, and are expected to begin rebuilding this year. And builders are banding together in a new Builders Alliance to share resources and incrementally ease the massive housing shortage that plagued the city even before the fires.

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.

Climate Week NYC, run by the nonprofit Climate Group and held in parallel with the United Nations General Assembly, makes its annual return this September 21–28 with hundreds of in-person, hybrid, and virtual events. This jam-packed week brings together a powerful cross-section of climate leaders, including inspiring activists; visionary artists; and industry leaders in real estate, business, finance, and government.

Phase 2 of the Willets Point redevelopment project is transforming an industrial part of Queens that once-inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “valley of ashes” in The Great Gatsby in 1925. A century later, Queens Development Group—a joint venture between Related Companies, Sterling Equities, and New York City Football Club—is converting 23 acres (9.3 ha) of underutilized land into a $3 billion mixed-use community.

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.

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.

Whether you’re planning for the coming week, year, or even decade, the key question to ask is: What’s next? But in an era both fraught with uncertainty and brimming with opportunity, it is an increasingly complicated question to answer.

The winners of the ULI Americas Awards for Excellence become finalists for the 2024 ULI Global Awards for Excellence, competing against projects from the Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The awards are open to projects and programs in the ULI Americas region that are substantially complete, financially viable, and in stable operation. The program evaluates submissions on overall excellence, including achievements in marketplace acceptance, design, planning, technology, amenities, economic impact, management, community engagement, innovation, and sustainability, among others.

Urban Land is spotlighting some trailblazing women in commercial real estate, all of whom are members of the ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative. Emma West, partner at Toronto-based Bousfields Inc., says it was the women who were part of the WLI Toronto Committee when she first joined who were instrumental in her professional development.

Uncertainty around asset prices likely to slow transactions.

The awards celebrate a senior leader, a young professional and a DEI champion

ULI has launched C Change for Housing, a major new pan-European program designed to mobilize the real estate industry around two of society’s most urgent and interconnected challenges: the climate crisis and housing affordability.

A new ULI report, supported by C Change and Net Zero Imperative, outlines the key barriers to decarbonization, and presents seven guiding principles that address asset stranding risk.

The outlook for the European real estate market is cautiously optimistic despite growing geopolitical uncertainty and concerns about economic growth, with London, Madrid, and Paris emerging as the standout performers, according to a new report by PwC and the Institute.

According to the second annual C Change Survey, 93 percent of respondents report incorporating transition risks into their real estate investment decisions, indicating the industry’s growing awareness and commitment to integrate climate-related financial risks into decision-making processes.

The global head of corporate real estate at one of the world’s biggest banks told attendees at the 2024 ULI Europe Conference in Milan that a lack of sustainable office assets is “one of the biggest challenges” the company faces.

Although market dynamics are changing in countries across Asia, new opportunities are opening up in real estate investment

Conducted in October, the Emerging Trends in Real Estate® survey ranked Tokyo (1), Osaka (2), Sydney (3), and Singapore (4) as the four cities with the best investment prospects for the region. However, MSCI data and anecdotal reports reveal that market disparities are profoundly evident across both geographies and sectors in Asia Pacific.

A new initiative aimed at promoting low-carbon steel in China’s real estate sector has been launched, co-convened by ULI Greenprint, the World Steel Association, and the China Iron and Steel Association. This collaboration unites major real estate developers and steel manufacturers to drive the transition to low-carbon steel production, with the goal of significantly reducing emissions in Mainland China and Hong Kong. China’s steel industry plays a pivotal role in global efforts to combat climate change.

Fourteen developments from across Asia have been named winners of the 2025 ULI Asia Pacific Awards for Excellence, one of the real estate industry’s most prestigious honors. Announced at the 2025 ULI Asia Pacific Summit held in May in Hong Kong, this year’s award winners include projects in Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore.

One of Singapore’s most vibrant districts demonstrates how public/private partnerships and the community can shape the built environment.

Governments, businesses, and communities need to collaborate to reduce carbon emissions to ensure that decarbonisation is not just a buzzword.