Three University of Cincinnati teams competed in the National ULI Hines Student Competition, which ran January 15-29, 2018, and two of the UC teams participating received Honorable Mentions for their work.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Hines Student Competition is an ideas competition that provides students the opportunity to devise a comprehensive design and development scheme for an actual, large-scale site in an urban area. Fifteen Architecture, Planning, and Real Estate students participated in the UC Forward interdisciplinary urban design class at the UC Niehoff Urban Studio to submit designs for a proposed development project in Toronto, Canada.

The competition is designed to simulate an actual urban planning and development scenario for a real site in a North American city. This year the City of Toronto was the host city with the competition reflecting developments being considered as part of the City’s vision for reviving the neighborhoods east of its historic downtown. Participants were tasked with creating a master development plan for the redevelopment of parcels of land adjacent to the river into a thriving mixed-use community that would catalyze other development, including additional commercial, retail and residential space, and connect residential neighborhoods in the city’s northeast section to commercial neighborhoods in the southern section.

This year, proposals were submitted by 130 teams representing nearly 60 universities in the United States and Canada. Four university teams were selected as finalists and seven teams received Honorable Mention recognition.

This class immediately followed the 4^th annual Fall Semester Local ULI Al Neyer UC Competition which has prepared participating students for the National Hines ULI Student Competition each year. Several real estate leaders and professionals from ULI Cincinnati deserve special recognition for helping UC teams with preparation enabling them to perform for the first time within the top 10% of national development submissions: Frank Russell of the Director of UC Forward at the UC Niehoff Urban Studio, Mike Eriksen of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, Conrad Kickert of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, Dave Neyer of STNL Development, Zeb Copley of PNC Bank and Lydia Jacobs-Horton of ULI Cincinnati.