An area in Midtown Miami, split between the Wynwood and Edgewater neighborhoods, will be the study site for the 18th annual ULI Hines Student Competition. This education initiative, open to graduate-level students, is an exercise to encourage innovative ideas and cross-disciplinary collaboration and gives students with an opportunity to devise a comprehensive design and development program for an actual large-scale urban site.
This year, 124 teams representing 56 universities inthe United States and Canada registered to compete, including 23 teams withstudents from more than one university and eight teams with students in morethan one state or province. The team with the winning proposal will receive$50,000, of which $5,000 goes to the university or universities the teamrepresents. Each of the remaining three finalist teams will receive $10,000.
The competition, which opened January 13, simulates anactual design, planning, and development scenario, and reflects Miami’s visionto reduce congestion and become more resilient by encouraging walkableneighborhoods around transit nodes. The Florida East Coast Railway bisects the studyarea, where students will evaluate the potential to create a thriving,mixed-use neighborhood around a commuter train station. The competition asksstudents to consider issues of housing affordability, sustainability, andresilience in their proposals.
The Florida East Coast Railway bisects the study area, where students will evaluate the potential to create a thriving, mixed-use neighborhood around a commuter train station. The competition asks students to consider issues of housing affordability, sustainability, and resilience in their proposals.
A jury of ULI members who are experts in real estate,land use, and design will select four finalist teams by late February. Duringthe final phase of the competition, these four teams will expand their originalproposals following a site tour by one team member. At the competition finale inMiami, the teams will present their proposal twice: first to a panel of localexperts, and then to the jury during a public forum in April.
The competition encourages cooperation andteamwork—necessary talents in the planning, design, and development ofsustainable communities. Teams must be multidisciplinary and include studentspursuing at least three different degree programs in at least three differentdisciplines. This mix typically includes graduate students who are pursuingprograms in real estate development, architecture, landscape architecture,urban planning, urban design, finance, historic preservation, engineering, andlaw.
“We are very excited to bring this year’s ULI HinesStudent Competition to Miami,” said Paul Bernard, executive vice president ofULI’s Advisory Services program. “This competition is part of an ongoing ULIeffort to raise awareness among young people about the very real impact thatland use and urban development have on people’s lives, while also providing aninformative look at how the next generation of land use professionals is thinkingabout the future of cities. We look forward to seeing what the contestants willcome up with this year.”
The competition gives each team of five students 15days to create proposals that illustrate innovative approaches to five generalelements: 1) planning context and analysis, 2) a master land use plan, 3) urbandesign, 4) site-specific illustrations of new development, and 5) a developmentschedule and finances. Participants have received project briefing materials,including a comprehensive statement of the challenge, background information onthe site, market information, existing design proposals, and site maps andphotos. There is no expectation that the locality will implement the teams’plans.
The competition is funded through an endowment fromGerald D. Hines, chairman and founder of the Hines global real estateorganization and a recipient of the ULIJ.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.A legend in the real estate industry, Hines is widely known as a leader whopioneered the use of high-quality planning and architecture as a marketablefeature of development in office, residential, and mixed-use projects. Sincethe first Hines competition in 2003, more than 9,160 students on over 1,830teams have participated.
For more information on theULI Hines Student Competition, visit uli.org/hines.
