Internationally acclaimed artist and urban planner Theaster Gates was awarded the prize during the opening general session of the 2018 ULI Fall Meeting.

ULI Global Chairman Thomas W. Toomey welcomed Fall Meeting attendees by pointing to the Institute’s long history of leadership in Boston: ULI’s first real estate education conference—a precursor to the Fall Meeting—was held in Boston in 1941; and the last Fall Meeting in Boston was in 2001, less than a month after 9/11. “Due to the leadership of ULI Boston, that [2001] meeting turned out to be especially meaningful in terms of being together and sharing ideas on the future of cities. That same desire for fellowship and to share knowledge is very much evident at the meeting this week,” Toomey said.

Two urban parks—Levy Park in Houston and Madrid Río Park in Madrid, Spain—have been selected as winners of the ULI Urban Open Space Award. The award recognizes outstanding examples of successful large- and small-scale public spaces that have socially enriched and revitalized the economy of their surrounding communities. Ricardo Lara Park in Los Angeles was also honored with a Special Community Impact recognition.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people in the Carolinas, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and China, and to those who are responding with rescue and relief aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut.

Social psychologist and bestselling author Amy Cuddy will give a keynote at the 2018 ULI Fall Meeting. Cuddy is an expert on the behavioral science of power, presence, and prejudice. Cuddy, who teaches leadership at Harvard, earned her PhD from Princeton University and has served on the faculties of Harvard Business School and Northwestern University. Her book Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challengesis a bestseller and has been published in 30 languages.

ULI’s Building Healthy Places Initiative is delighted to announce and congratulate the participants in the second cohort of the ULI/Randall Lewis Health Mentorship Program, which is generously supported by ULI Foundation Governor Randall Lewis. In addition to being matched with a ULI Full Member mentor based on professional interests, mentees earn the opportunity to attend the 2018 ULI Fall Meeting in Boston and the 2019 ULI Spring Meeting in Nashville, where they will experience Product Council meetings and the Building Healthy Places Interest Forum alongside their mentors.

ULI Tampa Bay recently hosted experts in planning, design, technology, and development to discuss how technological advances and innovative ideas can help developers turn the parking challenge into a parking opportunity.

ULI Health Leaders were asked to reflect on when they first grasped that the built environment and the design of communities play a significant role in the ability to make healthy choices and live healthy lives. This group of professionals—which includes architects, real estate experts, urban planners, health experts, and community developers—presented a range of these “a-ha moments”: some realized it early in life while others made connections later through their professional experiences.

Can vacant theaters, banks, schools, libraries, churches, apartment buildings, and storefronts that once were mainstays of Detroit neighborhoods be preserved while also providing an economic boost? That was the issue facing a ULI Advisory Services panel that gathered in the Motor City in late July.

Affordable and workforce housing policies and programs put in place by the governments of New York City, Los Angeles County, and the states of New Jersey and New York have been selected as finalists for the 2018 ULI Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award. The annual award, presented by ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, recognizes innovative ways the public sector is addressing the nation’s affordable housing crisis.