Six finalists have been selected for ULI’s Urban Open Space Award. This is the first year in which the competition was open to projects outside the United States and Canada. This year’s finalists are Marina Bay in Singapore; Millennium Park in Chicago; Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City; Thousand Lantern Lake Park System in Foshan, Guangdong, 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—including finance, architecture, land planning and development, public affairs, design, and professional services—will select one winner, which will be announced at the 2015 ULI Fall Meeting, to be held October 5–8 in San Francisco.
- Marina Bay in Singapore
- Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois
- Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Thousand Lantern Lake Park System in Foshan, Guangdong, China
- Tongva Park and Ken Genser Square in Santa Monica, California
- Washington Canal Park in Washington, D.C.
“The submissions from this year are representative of how quality urban open space has become more than just an amenity for cities,” says 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 award was created through the generosity of Amanda M. Burden, former New York City planning commissioner and 2009 recipient of the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. In 2011, the Kresge Foundation, the MetLife Foundation, and the ULI Foundation collaborated to continue the Urban Open Space Award program. This year, the Institute announced that 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.
The other jury members were jury vice chair M. Leanne Lachman, president, Lachman Associates, New York City; Terrall Vern Budge, principal, Loci, Salt Lake City; Sujata S. Govada, managing director, UDP International, Wan Chai, Hong Kong; Jason Hellendrung, principal, Sasaki Associates, Watertown, Massachusetts; Sophie Henley-Price, managing director, STUDIOS, Paris; Lance K. Josal, chief executive officer, Callison RTKL, Dallas; Jeff Kingsbury, managing principal, Greenstreet, Indianapolis; Jacinta McCann, executive vice president, AECOM, San Francisco; Steve Navarro, executive vice president, CBRE, Greenville, South Carolina; and Trini M. Rodriguez, principal, Parker Rodriguez, Alexandria, Virginia.
