Georgia Tech team finalists for urban design competition

Students from Georgia Tech are among the four teams that have been selected as the finalists for the 19th annual ULI / Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, an event that challenges graduate students to devise a comprehensive design and development plan for a real site in an urban area.

This year’s competition asked students for proposals to create a thriving mixed-use, mixed-income area in the East Village neighborhood in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, according to a press release. The challenge brief asked the students to address housing affordability, equity, transportation, mobility, sustainability, and resilience in their proposals. The four teams now advance to the final round of the competition in April, where they will compete for a $50,000 prize.

Cattlyst from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Contestants Erin Heidelberger, Akhilesh Dhurkunde, Huangzhe Zhao, Robin Cornel, and Alex Sovchen). Cattlyst celebrates Kansas City’s agricultural roots while launching the city into the future of food. The development serves as a complete community focused on showcasing innovation in food technology. It leverages partnerships with existing companies, startups, and universities, as well as its location in the Central Business District, to capitalize on the growing biotech workforce by establishing itself as an innovation corridor anchored by a diverse neighborhood.

Other finalists:

• EAVIRO District Development Plan from University of Houston, Pennsylvania State University, and Columbia University in the City of New York.
• Fusion from Ryerson University, York University, and University of Toronto.
• Homebase from University of California Berkeley.

The finalists were chosen from 105 entries by a jury of 16 leading ULI members representing a broad variety of real estate and related disciplines. This year, students formed teams representing 61 different universities in the United States, Canada, and Singapore, including 31 teams with students from more than one university.