The team of Georgia Institute of Technology students has taken top honors in the 22nd annual ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition.
The ideas contest provides graduate students with the opportunity to devise a comprehensive design and development scheme for a large-scale site in an urban area. The contest this year focused on redevelopment plan for a Seattle site, with the winning team receiving a prize of $50,000. The remaining three finalist teams will each receive $10,000.
This year’s competition asked students for proposals to create a vibrant mixed-use, mixed-income area in downtown Seattle, Wash. Working in partnership with King County who has been leading local planning efforts for the site, ULI created a challenge brief with input from local stakeholders including the City of Seattle asking the students to address issues of equity, housing affordability, access to neighborhood services, sustainability, and connectivity to surrounding communities.
“All four finalists presented compelling ideas for the King County properties, which set up a tough choice for the jury,” said jury chair Jeff Baxter, Partner at Cityvolve in North Charleston, SC, and member of the winning team of the inaugural ULI Hines Student Competition in 2003. “Ultimately, Meander was selected due to their unique circulation concept, mid-rise building massing and all-in approach to mass timber construction. While mass timber is still in its early stages, the team was well-versed and researched on the subject matter, presenting an aspirational, yet achievable, project.”
The winning plan from Georgia Institute of Technology, titled Meander, is a vision for part of the Downtown Seattle area designed to address challenges posed by the post-COVID environment, social inequality, and climate change. The team was comprised of Noah Stogner, Grace Kunst, Arthur Santos Miranda, Vivian Lin, and Brooke Blankenship, all representing Georgia Institute of Technology.
“Participating in this competition gave us a deeper understanding of the many facets of real estate, and we are especially excited to know that by utilizing new and innovative design strategies, Meander has provided Seattle with an inclusive and realistic development proposal that has the potential to radically improve the Pioneer Square neighborhood. Additionally, we had the opportunity to interact with King County representatives during the competition, opening up new opportunities to enhance our careers beyond academia, and for that, we are incredibly grateful,” the team said in a statement.