Best of the Best: ULI Announces Five Winners of the 2007 Global Awards for Excellence Competition

For more information, contact Marge Fahey at 202/624-7187 or E-mail: mfahey@uli.org

LAS VEGAS (October 26, 2007) Five outstanding developments have been selected as winners of the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) Global Awards for Excellence competition, widely recognized as the land use industry’s most prestigious recognition program.

The competition is part of the Institute’s Awards for Excellence program, established in 1979, which is based on ULI’s guiding principle that the achievement of excellence in land use practice should be recognized and rewarded. ULI’s Awards for Excellence recognize the full development process of a project, not just its architecture or design. The criteria for the awards include leadership, contribution to the community, innovations, public/private partnership, environmental protection and enhancement, response to societal needs, and financial success.

Over the years, the Awards for Excellence program has evolved from recognition of one development in North America to an international competition with multiple winners. The ULI Awards for Excellence: Europe was added in 2004 and in 2005, the ULI Awards for Excellence: Asia Pacific was added. Throughout the program’s history all types of projects have been recognized for their excellence, including office, residential, recreational, urban/mixed-use, industrial/office park, commercial/retail, new community, rehabilitation, and public projects and programs.

The 2007 Global Awards for Excellence winners were selected by a jury of renowned land use development and design experts: Jury Chair Jeremy Newsum, group chief executive, Grosvenor, London; Andrea Amadesi, managing director, IXIS AEW Italia SpA, Milan; Lee Hanley, chairman/CEO Vestar Development Co., Phoenix; Helen Hatch, principal, Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates, Inc., Atlanta; and Akio Makiyama, chairman, Forum for Urban Development, Tokyo.

The winners were announced during the ULI fall meeting in Las Vegas. “The Awards for Excellence program celebrates the creativity, vision, and best practices in land use,” Newsum said. “These projects not only represent the best of the best, but demonstrate a relevance to the communities in which they are located.”

The 2007 global winners were selected from 20 world-wide finalists, all of whom were winners in their region: The Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. The global awards jury evaluated these projects with additional criteria, including: innovative concepts that can be emulated around the world; strong urban design; response to the surrounding environment; and design that contributes to a livable, sustainable development that demonstrates relevance to the needs of the community.

The 2007 Global Awards for Excellence winners (developers in parentheses) are:

The Americas

• High Point, Seattle, Washington (Seattle Housing Authority) High Point is a 120-acre, ecologically-conscious planned community with half of its 1,600 houses completed. Half of the homes are market-rate and the other half are affordable rentals.
• Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.) Urban Outfitters consolidated its corporate and various brand headquarters in 250,000 square feet of renovated industrial buildings on 11 acres of the decommissioned Philadelphia Navy Yard. The corporate campus’ success has contributed to the redevelopment being undertaken by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation on more than 1,000 acres in a historic, brownfield site.

Europe

• Manufaktura, Lodz, Poland (Apsys Management) On a 27-hectare site of a former textile mill in the center of Poland’s second largest city, the developer has refurbished 14 historically-protected buildings to create a lifestyle center organized around a market square. A two-level mix of international retail shops and restaurants occupy 121,000 square meters, with a hotel and a museum to come in the next phase.
• Meudon Campus, Meudon sur Seine, France (Hines France) Five speculative low-rise office buildings, totaling 44,300 square meters, comprise this two-hectare green-roofed office park built on the brownfield remains of a Roman hillside quarry and, more recently, an auto factory. In between the Issy les Moulineaux and La Defense office submarkets, the Meudon Campus has 450 meters of Seine River frontage and views of Paris.

Asia Pacific

• Hong Kong Wetland Park, Hong Kong, China (Architectural Services Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government) The 61-hectare park is a demonstration site for wetland reclamation and environmental sustainability. The Wetland Park incorporated indigenous plants and building materials and the recycling of fabricated products to elevate it from a passive infrastructure and conservation project to an active tourism, education, and recreation site for Hong Kong.

The Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 38,000 members representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.