Washington – Ten developments from across North America have been selected as winners of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) 2023 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence.
This year, 68 projects and programs from across the Americas region were submitted for the competition. From this field, the 13-member jury composed of development, finance, planning, urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture experts selected 20 finalists.
Among the winners was Cambridge Crossing (CX) in Cambridge, Mass. The site was formerly an abandoned railyard now transformed into a neighborhood designed for human interaction and health and wellness. The master plan vision for Cambridge Crossing includes 2.5 million sq. ft. of life science and tech space, 2.4 million sq. ft. of residential space, 100,000sf of retail space, and 11 acres of open space. With a focus on sustainability, all buildings are LEED and Wired Score certified.
King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools & Community Complex / Photo by Robert Benson Photography
The King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools & Community Complex in Cambridge, Mass. was also among the award recipients. As part of the City of Cambridge’s Innovation Agenda for Cambridge Public Schools, the King Open Complex is the second project in the city’s larger effort to transform K-8 education with 21st century learning spaces. The complex reconnects the community to the park by surrounding the building with green, open spaces and creates a central spine that links the city through the site to Donnelly Field.
Other winners included:
- Aegis Living Lake Union – Seattle, Wash.
- Aurora Bridge Bioswales – Seattle, Wash.
- First Americans Museum – Oklahoma City, Okla.
- HomeRise at Mission Bay – San Francisco, Calif.
- Ironworks – Vancouver, British Columbia
- Little Island – New York, N.Y.
- University of California Merced, Master Architect 2020 – Merced, Calif.
- Water Street Tampa – Tampa, Fla.
In addition to an open category, which recognizes all product types, the categories for this year’s awards included Equitable Development, Low-Carbon Development, Resilient Development, Small-Scale Development, and Urban Open Space.
The following projects received recognition in these categories:
- Low-Carbon Development — Aegis Living Lake Union
- Low-Carbon Development – King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools & Community Complex
- Low-Carbon Development – University of California Merced, Master Architect 2020
- Small-Scale Development – HomeRise at Mission Bay
- Urban Open Space – Aurora Bridge Bioswales
- Urban Open Space – Little Island
The Awards for Excellence program recognizes superior development efforts in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Winning projects represent the highest standards of achievement in the land use profession and encompass a wide range of land uses, sizes, investments, and geographic locations. The winners of the ULI Americas Awards for Excellence become finalists for the 2023 ULI Global Awards for Excellence, competing against projects from the Europe and Asia Pacific regions.
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The awards are open to projects and programs in the ULI Americas region that are substantially complete, financially viable, and in stable operation. The program evaluates submissions on overall excellence, including achievements in marketplace acceptance, design, planning, technology, amenities, economic impact, management, community engagement, innovation, and sustainability, among others.
