Hines Mentors

The ULI Hines Student Design Competition, entering its 20th year in 2022, offers graduate students the opportunity to form multidisciplinary teams and engage in a challenging exercise in responsible land use. Teams of five students pursuing degrees in at least three different disciplines have two weeks to devise a development program for a real, large-scale site in a North American city. Teams provide graphic boards and narratives of their proposals including designs and market-feasible financial data.

Volunteers needed in January 2022

Please consider volunteering your time in 2022 as a mentor to one of the University of Texas teams. This is a rewarding exercise for everyone involved and a great way to give back to the profession.  The University of Texas School of Architecture and the McCombs School of Business assemble student teams comprised of landscape architects, architects, planners and MBA students. ULI Americas will select a site, announced on the first morning of the competition, and the students will have two weeks to prepare a comprehensive design and development program for a real, large-scale site full of challenges and opportunities. Previous sites have been in Cleveland, Minneapolis, Chicago, Nashville and New Orleans. Submissions consist of graphic boards and narratives that include designs, and market-feasible financial data.

As a mentor volunteer, you will be paired with a University of Texas student team and other mentors in development/ landscape architecture/ architecture/ engineering. The time commitment is flexible and determined by each individual team. This is an excellent way to give back to academia, in addition to networking and recruitment benefits.

In February, the jury will make final selections and in April, four finalist teams will receive an all-expenses-paid trip for the students to the host city to present revised proposals. The University of Texas has had many teams selected as finalists over recent years, including winning the top prize in 2017 and two finalist teams in 2019.

Contacts:

Chair: Rebecca Leonard, Lionheart

Staff Liason: Cheryl McOsker, ULI Austin

2019 Hines Competition Results

The University of Texas competed with seven (7) teams competed and 2 teams of these teams were selected as a finalist. Read more about the 2019 competition here or see the ULI Americas official press release HERE.

2018 Hines Competition Results

The University of Texas competed with 5 teams and had a wonderful learning opportunity.  Although no awards were won, Texas continued the tradition of receiving high praise and a great feedback from both student participants and mentors alike.

2017 Hines Competition Results & Recap

In 2017 ULI Hines Student Competition wrapped up Jan. 23, 2017.   This competition offers multidisciplinary graduate students at universities nationwide a chance to engage in a challenging exercise in responsible land planning. The University of Texas at Austin, led by Simon Atkinson and Edna Ledesma, entered the competition with eight teams. The teams, typically consisting of landscape architects, architects, planners and MBA students, have two weeks to design a development program for a real site in the United States. The site is located in an urban context and the team is given background information about the city, the history of the site and the desires of the developer the morning the competition begins. Several mentors assigned to each team provide advice and guidance on the design. The mentors are members of the Austin community in the fields of development, finance, architecture, landscape architecture and engineering. The final submissions consist of boards that include drawings, site plans, tables and market-feasible financial data.

The 2017 site was in the heart of Chicago in an area adjacent to the North Branch of the Chicago River. Applications were submitted by 130 teams representing nearly 60 universities in the United States and Canada. Of those 130 teams, one of the University of Texas’ teams placed in the top four finalists.

See their submission here: http://uli.org/hines-competition/uli-hines-student-competition-2017-finalist-rooted-university-of-texas-at-austin/

For the five students on the 2017 winning team from the University of Texas, the experience was transformative and illustrative of the multidisciplinary, collaborative nature of careers in urban development. Team leader Christopher Perkes, who is pursuing a joint master’s degree in community and regional planning and sustainable design said, “My experience in the Hines Competition was an inflection point in both my life and career. It reinforced my belief that as much as we may desire it, our world is not so simply boiled down to clear professional lines. The built environment and all those who live in and interact with it require complex solutions from innumerable perspectives. Overall, it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, and has already proved itself invaluable in my personal, professional, and academic endeavors.”