A team of graduate students from UMD’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and the Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development has landed one of four finalist slots in the sixteenth annual ULI Hines Student Competition, edging out 122 teams from 59 of the finest and most prestigious graduate-level programs in the United States and Canada. UMD will go toe-to-toe with Cornell University and Georgia Tech (who placed two entries) in April. Team Maryland is: Kevin Garzon (Architecture); Kelly Marie Haley (Architecture/Historic Preservation); Sofie Rhoads, Team Leader (Urban and Community Planning); Nicholas A. Shank (Professional Program in Real Estate Development); and Timothy S. Shook (Architecture). The team’s academic advisors are Dr. Margaret McFarland, Clinical Professor and Architecture Lecturer Christian Calleri. The professional advisor is Abe Rosenthal, Vice President of Development & Design, Cordish Companies.
The ULI Hines Student Competition challenges interdisciplinary teams of graduate students to create a dynamic design and development solution for a real large-scale site in just two weeks. While this is an ideas competition, it is part of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) continued mission to engage young professionals in collaborative solutions, responsible land use and creating better communities. Student teams must comprise at least three disciplines, a nod to ULI’s efforts to promote interdisciplinary solutions to urban challenges. This year’s competition asked teams to devise a comprehensive design and development program for a site on edge of Toronto’s downtown district, just north of a proposed large-scale commercial district that skirts the eastern banks of the Don River. UMD’s proposal, entitled “Point Passage,” is the conception of Toronto’s “next great neighborhood,” a mixed-use community that connects the city’s vibrant downtown to a new economic, cultural and transportation hub that seamlessly transitions with the residential areas to the north.
"We are proud to have the multidisciplinary collaboration of the four programs housed in our school, where students receive a balanced focus on planning, historic preservation, real estate development and sustainable design,” said McFarland. “These efforts have once again produced an outstanding team of students who have led us to another finalist spot in this highly competitive, international competition."
The team will get their first glimpse of the site during a visit in March; they have six weeks to complete their plan before the final competition. The winning team will walk away with $50,000, with $5000 going towards the school.
To learn more about “Point Passage,” visit UMD’s project page on the ULI Hines website.