A five-student team from the University of Colorado has won $50,000 in a national urban design competition held in Salt Lake City.
The CU team defeated student teams from Harvard University, Columbia University and the University of Texas at Austin in the finals of the competition held April 1. The four finalists were selected from 71 submissions to the Urban Land Institute Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, which is open to graduate students in real estate-related areas of study at universities throughout North America.
The CU team consisted of CU-Boulder Leeds School of Business MBA students Blake Church, Tom Magloczki and Chip Radebaugh, and CU-Denver and Health Sciences Center students Blake Belanger and Nathan Abbott from the College of Architecture and Planning. The team will dedicate $5,000 of its winnings to CU as an unrestricted grant.
"The success of the interdisciplinary CU team at the ULI Hines Student Design Competition in Salt Lake City is a compelling testament to the quality of our professional programs at CU-Boulder," said Leeds School of Business Interim Dean Stephen Lawrence. "To prevail over 71 teams, including a final four that included Harvard, Columbia and Texas is the academic equivalent of winning the NCAA basketball championship. We are indeed proud of our students and our programs."
Each competing team had to produce development plans for one of two sites in the Salt Lake City area. The Magna site, a 2,208-acre portion of Magna Township in Salt Lake County, and the Northwest Planning Area, a 2,002-acre undeveloped site in the jurisdiction of Salt Lake City, were the sites used for the competition.
"We chose to revitalize the Magna site, which is essentially an economically depressed town on the outskirts of Salt Lake City," said Radebaugh, who is working toward both an MBA and a law degree at CU. "After looking at the high rate of sprawl in the area, we felt that transforming the urban site would be a better fit for the community."
The heart of their plan called for extending an existing light-rail line through the Magna site, thus connecting the area to the greater Salt Lake City region. The rail line also was intended to act as a magnet for redevelopment of the area.
During the final part of the competition, each team presented its final plan to the competition judges during a public forum. The CU team won by a unanimous decision. The teams had worked through March to expand on their original plans and to provide more detail about how to accomplish their development goals.
"The contest brought together students from different backgrounds to find a solution to some of the most significant problems facing real estate development in the West, including urban sprawl, traffic congestion, reduced air quality, water shortage and regional connectivity," said Byron Koste, director of the Leeds School Real Estate Center.
The Urban Land Institute, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit education and research institute with a mission of providing responsible leadership in the use of land to enhance the total environment. Established in 1936, the institute has more than 25,000 members representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.
The CU team won an additional $10,000 for advancing to the final four.
For more information about the competition visit the Web site at .