ULI Announces Winner of Hines Competition
Earlier today the Urban Land Institute completed the 2006 Urban Design Competition with presentations and selection of the grand prize winner. The event was held at Dubough Hall on the main campus of St. Louis University. I reviewed the finalists earlier this month (read review).
The four finalist teams drew numbers to determine the order in which they’d. It was Harvard (#4110), Harvard (#1015), UC-Berkeley and Columbia. Each team was given 25 minutes for presentation with another 20 minutes of questions from the jury. While a team was presenting the other teams that had not yet gone were not permitted in the room. This makes sense so that a later team does not benefit from seeing the types of questions the jury might ask.
Among the audience members were Marjorie Melton of the Board of Public Service and Planning and Urban Design Director Rollin Stanley.
Each team submitted additional boards today with greater detail on their phase one planning & financials. Nothing in the presentations altered my views. I saw the two Harvard proposals as quite strong, the Berkeley as my overall favorite and the Columbia proposal as a sad reincarnation of 1960’s urban renewal thinking.
All of the teams did an excellent and highly professional job of verbally communicating their ideas. Some individuals were stronger than others but that was to be expected.
The jury took a few minutes to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of all four:
Harvard (4110 — Aurora):
Pro: A bold & confident plan that stresses streets can be positive, good clarity of plan.
Con: Lacks good integration between streets and greenway space. Jury not convinced of connection.
Harvard (1015 — Bridging Innovation at Grand Crossing):
Pro: Took program literally and viewed greenway as an economic driver to bring people to area. Clever approach by “pinching” at Grand (focusing users on area). Entertainment & retail along Grand a good idea.
Con: Cortex area with green roofs not so compelling in terms of site plan, wanted to see more green in the Cortex area. Boardwalk area in NE quadrant may not work and unsure about viability of high rise along Grand at MetroLink.
Columbia:
Pro: Extremely bold moves with walkway system. Very close to one requirement of competition — leaving the bridge design intact.
Con: Economic development required to pay for the infrastructure may not be possible in this location.
Berkeley:
Pro: Does more to establish a neighborhood with a strong grid, magnet school, integration of green with “fingers” in the development.
Con: MetroLink not as fully engaged as it could be. Boardwalk creates barrier.
The three non-winning finalists teams each get $10,000.
The winning team, Harvard #1015 Bridging Innovation at Grand Crossing, won $50,000. While this was not my favorite I think is a very strong proposal. I saw nothing in their concepts that I would argue against. I had argued in January for just such a proposal to create a strong element out of Grand. They did an excellent job of recognizing the TOD (transit oriented development) potential of the site and worked to maximize the existing MetroLink stop. And maximizing transit is exactly what St. Louis needs to do — and quickly.
Congratulations to team members Thomas Hussey, Christina Cambruzzi, Oliver Corlette, Patrick Curran and Tyler Meyr. Congrats as well to faculty advisor Rick Peiser. The additional boards detailing the phase one for each team will be uploaded to the ULI Competition website next week.
– Steve