A team of creative fourth-year Planning Students scored an impressive win with their entry in the international 2015 ULI Urban Ideas Competition. Not only did Team Waterloo win first prize in the “Student Category” ($1500) -- it also won the “People’s Choice” award! This was an especially high honour, given that teams of professional consultants were also competing for this prize.
The competition was organized by ULI (Urban Land Institute) and the City of Brampton to encourage bold ideas and practical solutions for the revitalization of Brampton’s downtown. The Competition required participants to address a number of important issues, including the need to:
- Define a comprehensive vision for downtown,
- Improve public facilities and active transportation experiences,
- Respond to the site’s heritage, natural and visual resources, and
- Improve the physical and visual connections within downtown and to the surrounding of the City of Brampton.
Team Waterloo’s design proposal included:
- The intensification of the Main St. and Queen St. intersection,
- An educational hub including a university, and
- A transportation hub servicing the LRT as well as municipal and regional transit.
Team Waterloo consisted of the following School of Planning students:
Entries were judged by a panel of experts including:
- Matthew Blackett, Publisher, Spacing Magazine
- Jeff Casello, Associate Professor, University of Waterloo, School of Planning
- Joseph Cordino, Partner, Cityzen Development Group
- John Potter, Senior Advisor, Design Excellence, Metrolinx
- Don Naylor, Principal, Don Naylor + Associates, Landscape Architects
The following ULI Toronto link contains an overview of the competition and its results:http://toronto.uli.org/young-leaders-group/event-recap-urban-ideas-competition-awards-night/