KSU Team Among Urban Design Finalists

Reprinted In Part Courtesy of Manhattan Mercury

A multi-disciplinary team of Kansas State University students finished second in a nationwide student urban design competition.

Four landscape architecture/regional and community planning students-John Perry, MLA, Mitchell, SD; Anthony Fox, MLA, St. Charles, MO; Christopher Morton, MLA, Englewood, CO; and Bryan Zundel, MRCP, St. Louis, MO-and business administration student Junbin Feng, MBA, China, joined teams from Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Miami as finalists in the Urban Land Institute’s Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. More than 90 student teams composed of nearly 500 students and representing 42 universities in the U.S. and Canada submitted proposals. The MIT team won the competition.

According to the ULI website (www.uli.org), competitors were challenged to create a design and development proposal for a 75-acre site in downtown Denver. The student plans are used as an exercise only and will not be implemented as part of any site development.

The K-State team’s “touch” design proposes to “converge culture, enterprise and lifestyle to create a verdant, livable, community-focused urban atmosphere.”

Stephanie Rolley, professor of landscape architecture/regional and community planning and an advisor to the team, described the students’ proposal, which looks to the year 2050, as “thinking about a more dense living environment.”

“They recognized ways of moving around and communicating that we maybe can’t even envision yet,” she said. “They tried to get people out of their vehicles and bring them together as a community with lots of green space and different opportunities to live, shop and work.”

Blake Belanger, assistant professor of landscape architecture/regional and community planning, served as the team’s faculty advisor. Dan Musser, BArch 1975, of Kansas City-based Zimmer Real Estate Services, served as a professional advisor.

After receiving the competition details, Rolley said the team had just two weeks to submit their design. “It was a very intensive effort,” she said, recognizing Perry, the team leader, for being “prepared in advance to tackle the project.”

Rolley said the group’s standing in the competition is “wonderful recognition for K-State.” “The ULI is the premier land development professional organization in the U.S.,” she said, adding “the Gerald D. Hines competition is the competition to be in.”

Comments by the prestigious eight-member jury about the K-State entry included, “… loved the compelling aspect of the beautiful spaces, the compelling images of the places-really wonderful. The station area was the best of all the station area arrivals, and the sense of arrival was good.  … looking at the regional issues of the area was very compelling and probably the strongest of all the schemes… you get a vision of connectivity past the development site… this is an important attribute of all urban designers to be able to look beyond the boundary of the property lines and give a vision for what’s further. Great people environments, beautiful, spectacular. Integration of the promenade and the park was very, very nice … looked to be some great neighborhoods. Definitely a sophisticated water strategy. Market Street was a compelling street, a very nice solution.”

The K-State team received a cash prize of $10,000.

Click here to see project graphics.

For more information, contact:
Stephanie Rolley, 785.532.5961
CAPD@ksu.edu, 785.532.1090