The Urban Land Institute has announced six finalists for its global Urban Open Space Award, an annual competition that recognizes outstanding examples of successful large- and small-scale public spaces that have socially enriched and revitalized the economy of their surrounding communities.
This year’s finalists are Marina Bay in Singapore; Millennium Park in Chicago; Myriad Gardens in Oklahoma City; Thousand Lantern Lake Park System in Foshan, China; Tongva Park and Ken Genser Square in Santa Monica, California; and Washington Canal Park in Washington, D.C. An international jury representing several facets of development expertise—including finance, architecture, land planning and development, public affairs, design, and professional services—will select one winner later this year.
Related: View all winners and finalists since 2010
“The submissions from this year are representative of how quality urban open space has become more than just an amenity for cities,” said jury chair Michael Covarrubias, chairman and chief executive officer of TMG Partners in San Francisco. “The international diversity of the projects is reflective of how developers continually work to meet global demand by the public for the inclusion of healthy places in cities.
The finalists are:
- Marina Bay, Singapore (owner/designer: Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority). The 2.2-mile-long (3.5 km) waterfront promenade features two pedestrian bridges that encircle a 119-acre (48 ha) body of water. This creates a “water piazza” that becomes a meeting place and focal point for celebrations and activities.
- Millennium Park, Chicago (owner: city of Chicago; designer: Edward Uhlir, et al.). The park represents a model of successful regeneration at the urban core, providing a place for Chicagoans and tourists to enjoy a broad variety of free public events through an engaging community experience.
- Myriad Gardens, Oklahoma City (owner: Myriad Gardens Foundation; designer: Office of James Burnett). A joint investment effort takes an underused yet prime 15-acre (6 ha) urban downtown garden and park site that had fallen into disrepair and turns it into a state-of-the-art, active destination to improve the quality of life in Oklahoma City and continue the renaissance of the entire downtown.
- Thousand Lantern Lake Park System, Foshan, China (owner: Nanhai District Government; designer: SWA Group, et al.). The park system represents a defining infrastructure effort integral to Nanhai’s strategic approach of urban transformation with a successful, people-oriented urban development that provides creative solutions for attracting people to its newly constructed Guangdong Financial High-Tech Industrial Zone.
- Tongva Park and Ken Genser Square, Santa Monica, California (owner: city of Santa Monica; designer: James Corner Field Operations). The project embodies a new type of urban landscape that is active, innovative, resource conscious, and natural. Shaped by extensive public participation, the design creates a contemporary and transformative series of gardens and active spaces that symbolically redefine and interconnect the center of Santa Monica.
- Washington Canal Park, Washington, D.C. (owner: Canal Park Development Association; designers: OLIN and STUDIOS Architecture, dcpc). One of the first parks built as part of the city’s Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, the park is located on three acres (1.2 ha) of a former school bus parking lot that has been transformed into a model of sustainability, a social gathering place, and an economic catalyst for the surrounding neighborhood.
The winning project will be announced at the ULI Fall Meeting, set for October 5–8, 2015, in San Francisco. A $10,000 cash prize will be awarded to the individual or organization most responsible for creation of the winning project.
The award was created through the generosity of Amanda M. Burden, former New York City planning commissioner and 2009 ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development laureate. In 2011, the Kresge Foundation, MetLife Foundation, and the ULI Foundation joined forces to continue the Urban Open Space Award through 2015. ULI has reaffirmed its commitment to the award and announced it would expand the program to global submissions.
To be eligible for the competition, an open-space project must have been open to the public for at least one year and no more than 15 years; be predominantly outdoors and inviting to the public; provide abundant and varied seating, sun and shade, and trees and plantings with attractions; be used intensively on a daily basis by a broad spectrum of users throughout the year; have a positive economic impact on its surroundings; promote the physical, social, and economic health of the larger community; and provide lessons, strategies, and techniques that can be used or adapted in other communities.
There will be additional coverage of the Urban Open Space Award in an upcoming print edition of Urban Land.
