GSAPP MSRED students Jonathan Hong, Matea Kulusic, and Pavel Petrov are among the winning team for the 2020 Urban Land Institute (ULI) / Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. Their team “La Mezcla” also included Duane Martinez and Matthew Mitchell from Pratt Institute and was advised by GSAPP Adjunct Assistant Professor David Kruth and Industry Mentor Phil Wharton. This competition invites graduate students to develop a comprehensive design and development plan for an urban site. The 2020 competition focused specifically on midtown Miami, challenging participants to propose solutions for housing affordability, sustainability, and resilience for a mixed-use neighborhood located along the Florida East Coast Railway. Members of the team received a prize of $50,000. 

“Our team agrees that the ULI Hines Competition was one of the single most challenging endeavors of our graduate experience, both from a development and design perspective,” said Hong. “We embodied the spirit of La Mezcla as we were able to leverage our diverse backgrounds, prior professional experience, and unique perspectives in pursuit of a common goal. We were excited to present a strong united vision that was centered around the three pillars of community, ecology, and economy. This helped us to set the framework that we could all stand behind and be proud of, and we look forward to building on our competition experience in our careers to come.”

The team’s winning proposal featured a LEED Platinum, mixed-used development for an environmentally sustainable community that addressed climate change. The development sought to bring together the socioeconomic diversity that exists between Wynwood and Edgewater despite a physical and perceived barrier on the site.