ULI Day, December 14, 2011
ULI celebrated 75 years of leadership in community building in December with a series of events in communities throughout the United States. More than 35 proclamations were issued declaring December 14 “ULI Day.”
This year’s Fall Meeting in Los Angeles—which kicked off the institute’s 75th anniversary celebration—was particularly focused on the long-term future of the industry and ULI.
ULI trustee Smedes York served as chairman from 1989 to 1991. He is chairman of York Properties Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was mayor of that city from 1979 to 1983. Smedes is a second-generation ULI leader from the York family and here discusses the current economic and real estate markets, his experience, and his views for the future.
“Considered anathema 30 to 40 years ago, architects and developers are now designing spaces that focus on employee cognitive functions and productivity to stay competitive in a knowledge economy gone global,” explains David Hobstetter, principal at San Francisco–based KMD Architects.
“Real estate companies have become more sophisticated and require different organizational and leadership structures,” says Richard A. Kessler, chief operating officer of BCP and chair of ULI New York. In the 1990s, real estate leadership became more scientific, taking over from instinct and intuition.
To say U.S. real estate markets have changed dramatically over the past 75 years is an understatement. Not only have American real estate markets grown dramatically, including the creation of REITs, the first CMBS issues, “sustainability” joining the lexicon of land use, and the advancement and implementation of ever-evolving technology in land use.
Walter S. Schmidt, the founder and first president of ULI in the 1930s. Schmidt conceived of an organization where the ingredients were businessmen with knowledge, experience, and a philosophy about the problems of the urban growth and decay of the American City.
Real estate practices may have changed in 75 years, but the Urban Land Institute remains the premier organization for the industry. “The real estate industry moves quickly, but ULI keeps its finger on the pulse,” says Sir Stuart Lipton, deputy chairman of London-based ¬Chelsfield Partners.
Few places speak more eloquently in embodying the attributes of a ULI Heritage Award than its first honoree, in 1989, Rockefeller Center. ULI’s Heritage Award is given periodically to developments that have demonstrated industry excellence for at least 25 years.
“You have to look globally because the world has been globalizing over the last 20 years,” says Richard M. Rosan, president of the ULI Foundation, which supports ULI through philanthropy. He also served as ULI’s chief executive for 17 years, during which he led the expansion abroad.
Postwar master-planned communities enabled Americans to build their lives around great neighborhoods, schools, and suburban amenities. In the coming years, communities will continue to be comprehensively planned, but implementation will be in smaller increments, experts predict.
The third panel ULI ever conducted, in April 1948, and the most recent one, in June 2011, involved the same city—Indianapolis. The comparison shows that problems faced by cities after World War II—transportation, environmental degradation, overcoming blight, and finding sufficient funds—have not disappeared.
