Ryerson Planning Students Move to Final Round in International Competition
Earlier this year, two Ryerson graduate students from Ryerson’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, Frances Grout-Brown and Leorah Klein, joined forces with three other graduate students (Yanlin Zhou, Master of Real Estate Development, York University; Ruotian Tan, Master of Urban Design, University of Toronto; and Chenyi Xu, Master of Architecture, University of Toronto) to submit a team entry to the prestigious ULI / Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, an annual event that challenges students to create a comprehensive design and development plan for a real site in a selected urban area.
Under the guidance of Ryerson advisors Dr. Steven Webber and Prof. Victor Perez-Amado and professional advisors Raymond Lee and Christina Giannone, the Toronto-based team had just two weeks to put their entry together in the timeline of the competition. Now the team’s submission, entitled FUSION, has been selected from 105 entries to move on to the finalist round, joining three other teams in a juried selection process leading to the top prize of $50,000 USD for the winning submission. (Runners-up will receive $10,000 USD.)
This year, the urban case study is the East Village neighbourhood in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, an area separated from the rest of the city by a freeway and other infrastructure that has seen disinvestment in recent decades. Due to the pandemic, student teams were not able to visit the site in person like they would have in previous years. “Instead, we did a deep dive into the supplied materials, aerial photographs, Google Earth, available research and official documents to get a sense of the character of the place and its situation,” said team leader Frances Grout-Brown.
The FUSION plan gets its name from its focus on bridging gaps and connecting the East Village to adjacent neighbourhoods, to weave it back into the fabric of the city. It does this by proposing a range of mixed-income housing types, offices, labs and incubators, indoor and outdoor community spaces and programming to encourage social connectivity. It also incorporates sensitive environmental features, such as a vertical farming greenhouse and rain garden.
From the submission: Seamlessly fusing the East Village, Paseo West, and Kansas City’s Downtown Core, FUSION is a welcoming and affordable mixed-use development, where everyone who wishes to call it home, can. Designed around two key pillars, connectivity and resilience, this LEED neighbourhood embodies inclusive and sustainable growth within Kansas City. FUSION’s unique combination of diverse housing, employment opportunities, social infrastructure and an enhanced public realm will fuel inclusive, sustainable economic growth within Kansas City.
“We pulled inspiration from Toronto development—for example, we financed the plan through a public-private partnership, and we reflected on the community assets residents of revitalized communities like Regent Park have advocated for,” said Grout-Brown. “But in many ways we had to step away [from the Toronto example], as Kansas City is completely different, and propose a plan unique to that context.”
“It’s a very well thought-out proposal,” said Dr. Webber of FUSION. “The team has done an excellent job of addressing the challenges of this site and have presented a strong, integrated plan, from the planning to the design to the community-building aspects. And the numbers make sense, from a pro forma perspective.”
The team is now looking forward to the finalist round of judging, which involves a call with the local jury and local stakeholders in Missouri, and a practice presentation before the final on April 8.
To be selected as a finalist in this competition—the top design challenge for students in North America--is a notable achievement. Webber added, “Winning this would be an incredible accomplishment for these students. The Toronto team is competing against the top schools in the US, some of which build a whole course structured around the competition. It would really indicate that the education that our students are receiving has prepared them to be able to collaborate with other disciplines and produce outstanding work in a real-world situation.”
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Official Press Release: https://americas.uli.org/200223hinesfinalists/ (external link)
FUSION Submission Details: https://americas.uli.org/2021-uli-hines-student-competition-finalist-fusion-ryerson-york-university-university-of-toronto/ (external link)