We're happy to announce that UC Berkeley students have beat out their competition from Harvard, Harvard again and U.I. at Urbana-Champaign in the 2007 ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. As you may remember, we showed you the entries from the four finalists in February, and one loser entry from USC students. The goal was to spiff up the stretch of East 1st Street between Alameda and Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights. Cal's entry, "Tectonics", was the one you all seemed to hate the least, so we're happy it won.
Via the press release:
Jury members commended the winning team for its boldness in reconnecting the river to the communities and for designing a scheme that ensured connectivity to the surrounding neighborhoods, both East and West. “The initial proposal was very bold and clear,” said Mark Johnson, president, Civitas in Denver. “It addresses what is widely known as a problem with Los Angeles; a very poor distribution of open space available to people of mixed means.” The Cal students get to split a $50,000 prize, while the other three finalist teams get $10,000 each. Hopefully, Boyle Heights gets some more park space.
· Gerald D. Hines Student Design Competition [ULI]
· Fixing LA: Connecting East LA to Downtown [Curbed LA]