ULI Philadelphia is pleased to announce the finalists for its 5^th Annual Willard G. “Bill” Rouse III Awards for Excellence. The national jury of experts comprised of interdisciplinary leaders from around the country recognized the high quality across all projects, exhibiting a strong story about the real estate market in the City of Philadelphia and tri-state region. Winners will be announced at a cocktail reception on June 13th.

The Awards for Excellence, modeled after the ULI Global Awards for Excellence, recognize

superior development projects in Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware that embody the ULI mission of pushing the standard of excellence in real estate and land use and creating sustainable, thriving communities. Priorities for the awards include factors beyond innovation in planning and design, including high standard of real estate development sustainability and building performance, adaptive reuse if applicable, economic success, and social impact for the surrounding community.

The 12 selected finalists represent a wide variety of project types, including commercial, residential, institutional, and mixed use open spaces. The national jury is celebrating this group as the highest quality projects that represent all aspects of the ULI mission and no categories are assigned in order to embrace the variety of project type and scope. The Jury, which includes leaders in real estate, land use and development from across the country, had a difficult task this year with a record-breaking number of applications and recognized high quality across the board.

The finalists are (alphabetically):

• 448 N. 10^th St (Philadelphia): Spanning an entire city block, Arts + Crafts Holdings enlivened a post-industrial pocket with the adaptive reuse of an abandoned bicycle factory into affordable units for small businesses, artists and event spaces while preserving the historic character of the building and neighborhood.
• 500 Walnut (Philadelphia): A long-vacant and structurally challenging lot just off Independence Mall developed by Scannapieco Development into a complex, state of the art luxury condominium tower with careful consideration to preserving an open sky behind America’s founding neighborhood.
• Bridge (Philadelphia): Adjacent to Philadelphia’s iconic Ben Franklin Bridge and the first development in the city to incorporate a Mixed Incoming Housing component, Brown Hill Development created an active street presence and unique mixed-use design ten years in the making.
• Capital Flats (Philadelphia): Transforming an abandoned meatpacking plant in the once industrial hub of Philadelphia, Onion Flats’ three phase, 18-year development was designed and planned to be intentionally flexible and open to changing community and market needs while breaking national records in sustainable development.
• El Corazón Cultural Center (Philadelphia): Taller Puertorriqueño developed a community center in the heart of a predominantly Latino North Philadelphia neighborhood, providing access to art and education for inner-city youth and creating a center for economic and social activity in the community.
• New Palmer, Pittenger and Roberts Residence Hall (NPPR) (Swarthmore, PA): Swarthmore College’s first building to employ the college’s Environmental Sustainability Framework, NPPR achieves lofty sustainability benchmarks while providing necessary housing to the growing campus community.
• One Riverside (Philadelphia): Built to compliment the surrounding Fitler Square neighborhood (a former factory district since reimagined by Dranoff Properties) and riverfront location, One Riverside delivered the first luxury condominium in the wake of the recession, redefining the market in Philadelphia.
• Oval Plus 2017 (Philadelphia): In the project’s fifth year, PORT created a smarter and more strategic placemaking project which invited visitors to consider the future of the Ben Franklin Parkway via interactive features and programs and analyzed the data to inform future iterations of the Oval.
• Rutgers School of Nursing- Camden Nursing and Science Building (Camden, NJ): Located in the heart of Camden’s Central Business District, Rutgers developed a Nursing School embedded in and serving the at-risk community while enhancing the surrounding burgeoning “Eds and Meds” corridor.
• South Point (Philadelphia): Achieving a multi-site infill workforce housing development, Innova utilized city-owned land to provide affordable homeownership opportunities in the rapidly gentrifying Point Breeze neighborhood of South Philadelphia.
• Spruce Street Harbor Park (Philadelphia): The flexible design and inexpensive materials used by the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation created an adaptable, replicable, and desirable waterfront connection ensuring a welcoming and diverse public space.
• VUE32 / SUMMER12 (Philadelphia): A public-private partnership between Drexel University and Radnor Property Group, Vue 32 / Summer 12 provides an education center and multifamily residential to the Powelton Village neighborhood of West Philadelphia.

The awards will honor the legacy of the late business and civic leader Bill Rouse, one of the founders of ULI Philadelphia and a past Trustee of the Urban Land Institute.  Rouse created and led Liberty Property Trust and its predecessor Rouse & Associates as a unique and visionary developer, kicking off a return to urban development with the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Building, the Society Hill Sheraton and a generation of new skyscrapers and a modern skyline starting with Liberty Place and the redevelopment of The Navy Yard.  As a tough-minded civic leader, his achievements included We the People, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and the Kimmel Center.

Winners will be announced at a cocktail reception on June 13th at The Ballroom at The Ben, located at 9th and Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Learn more about the event and register here.

Sponsorship opportunities available.