A team of four Waterloo undergraduate students won the total prize of $11,500 in the 8th edition of the annual Ryerson Real Estate Expand Your Empire (EYE) 2022 case competition.
The team took home the First Place Grand Prize of $10,000 and the Most Feasible Design award of $1,500 in the competition.
The EYE event is Canada’s largest real estate development conference and competition for undergraduate students which brings together students from all around the world that are passionate about commercial real estate.
The Waterloo team comprised of Matthew Van Bakel, 3B School of Planning, Faculty of Environment, Nathan Lee, 3A Civil Engineering, Samantha Kerry in 3A Architectural Engineering, and Kyson Vi, 4B Accounting and Financial Management featured in the comprehensive real estate development case competition during the two-day international conference that took place in the city of Toronto.
The challenge was to create a realistic development scheme of a mixed-use parcel of land in the Greater Toronto Area.
The team designed a re-imagined parcel of land which is composed of three office and commercial buildings with an urban plaza in the centre, four residential buildings, a mixed-use commercial building with residential towers above, and a retail street through the centre of the development. The central urban plaza featured in the proposal offers a high-end restaurant, a micro-brewery, and a coffee shop, along with seating for the transit station, and a year-round activity space.
“With an overarching goal to emphasize sustainability and foster a transit-oriented community, the team implemented various thought-out design features,” says Lee. “We integrated solar roofs, green roofs and living walls into our design.”
They also implemented widened streetscapes to allow for bike lanes and wide sidewalks to increase active transportation options. The team included electric vehicle charging stations and ensured easy accessibility to the transit station.
“The buildings were designed to optimize efficiency in terms of lighting, heating and cooling,” says Kerry.
The team’s presentation consisted of a high-level demographic analysis, development proposal, 3D modeling, and financial analysis with a focus on a transit-oriented and sustainable design.
“We tried to encompass the cultural and historic characteristics of the area by including Indigenous murals, artifacts, and plaques; as well as rail-way lights, tracks, and a clock tower to highlight the history of transportation in the area,” says Vi.
The team competed against top undergraduate teams in North America and was evaluated by industry professionals such as the CEO of Cushman and Wakefield, the board of directors at CreateTO, and several other major institutions in the field.
“Given the international exposure that this competition generates, we took the great opportunity to showcase Waterloo’s international competency, in addition to inspiring fellow students who are interested in the world of real estate development,” says Van Bakel.
Check the following links for more information on the complete results and conference.
