National jury panel reviewed projects; Winners to be announced June 14^th

ULI Philadelphia is pleased to announce 14 finalists for ULI Philadelphia’s fourth annual Willard G. “Bill” Rouse III Awards for Excellence. The Awards for Excellence, modeled after the ULI Global Awards for Excellence, will recognize superior development projects in  Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware. Winners will be announced at a cocktail reception on June 14^th at the Ballroom at The Ben in Philadelphia.

Criteria for the awards include factors beyond innovation in planning and design, including adaptability to other communities, sustainability, economic success, overall community health and social impact to address neighborhood revitalization goals.

The 14 selected finalists represent a wide variety of project types, including adaptive reuse, commercial, residential, institutional, mixed use open spaces. An independent and national panel of jurors, including leaders in real estate, land use and development from across the country, were tasked with selecting the highest quality projects.

The finalists are (listed alphabetically):

• AQ Rittenhouse (Philadelphia): Aquinas Realty Partners in conjunction with the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority redeveloped the long-vacant YWCA building at 2021 Chestnut Street into a mixed-use urban infill including an award-winning Charter School.

• Bartram’s Mile (Philadelphia): This latest extension of the Schuylkill River Trail by the City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department transformed a contaminated, neglected stretch of the waterfront to a public space destination, providing a new means of transportation and development to Southwest Philadelphia.

• Engine 38 Fire Station (Philadelphia): The City of Philadelphia Department of Public Property with the Philadelphia Fire Department have developed Engine 38 to be structurally cohesive with surrounding Disston park. It includes a community room and large front porch, embracing and enhancing the immediate community.

• FMC Tower at Cira Centre South (Philadelphia): A ten-year effort has culminated in Brandywine Realty Trust’s development Philadelphia’s first vertical neighborhood, completing Cira Centre South’s 2.5-acre master plan. The building stands at 49 floors with multiple uses adding up to more than one million square feet of space.

• Folsom Powerhouse (Philadelphia): A special community from conception, Equinox Construction and Postgreen Homes created thirty-one units distributed across single-family homes, duplexes, and apartments designed to encourage walkable urban lifestyles and includes stormwater management features far surpassing standards.

• George Street Commons (York, PA): A transit oriented, mixed-use infill in York’s Historic District was part of public-private partnership between the YMCA of York and the Partnership for Income Restricted Housing Leadership providing a state of the art living facility for families with incomes between 20 and 60 percent of the area’s median income.

• La Colombe:Fishtown (Philadelphia): Domani Developers transformed an abandoned warehouse into La Colombe:Fishtown, the epicenter for local coffee roasters designed and built by local tradesmen, artists, designers, and businesspersons alike- helping to spur development in Fishtown, creating safer streets and giving this neighborhood a needed and appreciated amenity.

• Pennovation Works and Pennovation Center (Philadelphia): The University of Pennsylvania realized a critical element of creating an intellectual and entrepreneurial asset to Philadelphia’s Innovation Ecosystem in transforming a vacant, industrial building and an underdeveloped area of the city into a unique, modern campus that is fresh and functional.

• Rodin Square | Dalian on the Park (Philadelphia):  In the latest development to bring vibrancy to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Dalian Development identified the needs of the Parkway to spur the creation of a mixed-use development that served to fill in missing pieces in a tightly planned and thoughtfully designed mixed use block. 

• Saint Christopher’s Pediatric Critical Care Tower (Philadelphia): With the added challenge of construction while the main wing of the hospital remained in operation, the critical care tower was completed by Tenet Healthcare Corporation with the input from the clinicians who would be utilizing it. The new wing progresses the Hospital’s aim to address the issues that contribute to health disparities for children in Philadelphia.

• Sixers Practice Facility and Home Office Building (Camden, NJ): AthenianRazak achieved the most advanced training facility in professional sports and the Sixers’ headquarters while serving as the first complex to open for business under the Grow NJ Program, part of the 2013NJ Economic Opportunity Act. The Sixers organization is highly involved in the Camden community including community education, recreation, health and fitness programs.

• South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center (Philadelphia): The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The City of Philadelphia developed a health care, educational, and recreational facility in a diverse, economically stressed urban community. This co-locating of servicing and leveraging opportunities for joint programs have been powerful tools for community revitalization.

• Swarthmore Town Center West (Swarthmore, PA): Swarthmore College developed a diverse team to tackle a variety of needs in Swarthmore Town Center West. Engaging the borough and college in a zoning overlay and a referendum, engaging PennDOT and numerous other public partners in replacing a confusing and dangerous intersection, and providing a mix of uses to both physically and socially connect the college and the borough in a culmination of 15 years of planning, study, and strategy.

• Waldorf School of Philadelphia (Philadelphia): This adaptive reuse project by Philly Office Retail renovated the abandoned St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Germantown while preserving the core historic value of the property. The impact of this renovation on the neighborhood was widely seen. Enrollment in the school increased by 250 students and adjacent, deteriorated residential properties were developed.

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 14th at The Ballroom at The Ben, located at 9th and Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. To register visit click here. To inquire about sponsorship opportunities contact [email protected].