By Patrick J. Kiger 

JUNE 27, 2022

The ULI Hines Student Competition, which brings together teams of students from various academic disciplines to work together on design projects, will expand to the Asia Pacific region beginning later this year.

The competition, which began in 2003 in North America and expanded to Europe in 2020, is the brainchild of legendary developer Gerald D. Hines, known for improving the quality of commercial buildings and for working with visionary architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee on landmark projects, including Houston’s Pennzoil Place. Hines’s namesake real estate firm, which today has a presence in 28 countries, is contributing $85,000 to support the program.

The contest created by Gerald D. Hines “encapsulates what he stood for—advocating innovation, education, and opportunities for the industry’s future leaders,” says Ray Lawler, Hines chief executive officer for Asia Pacific.

In the contest, interdisciplinary teams of graduate students from various fields—including real estate, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, and business administration—devise development projects for an actual site in a major city.

“The students also have to develop the process for working together,” explains Gretchen Sweeney, vice president for university programs and awards at ULI. “The teams that succeed are the ones who quickly form a vision, commit to it, and understand how to divide their time across the many tasks that have to take place.”

The competition also gives ULI members the opportunity to interact with the latest generation of talent, Sweeney says.

The winning team receives a $50,000 prize; finalist teams each get $10,000.

In the 2021 Americas competition, competitors designed plans for a site in Kansas City’s East Village neighborhood, with challenges that ranged from the need for affordable housing to the potential for a future baseball stadium. More than 100 teams submitted proposals, which were evaluated by a jury of 16 ULI members. The winning team included students from Canada’s Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, and York University.

“The competition has evolved to be the most successful graduate student competition in the U.S. and Europe, and we are beyond thrilled to be able to extend the ULI Student Competition to the Asia Pacific,” Lawler says. “This APAC program, like the ones in the U.S. and Europe, will support the next generation of creators and leaders. The ULI Hines Student Competition–Asia Pacific underscores Hines’s ongoing commitment to ULI, and we’re excited to be part of this global collaboration that inspires young people to create better communities.”

The Asia Pacific competition will begin registering teams in September 2022 and accepting project plans in January 2023. The winners will be announced in April.