UrbanPlan Americas Student Competition
“The [Americas] Urban Plan Competition gave students an opportunity to dig deeper into the political, social, economic, as well as design aspects that goes into public and private real estate redevelopment”
Mike Zane, Teacher at Kalani High School, Honolulu, HI
Each year, teams of high school students from across North America who have completed UrbanPlan compete for over $10,000 in prize money in a virtual competition to redevelop 5.5 blocks in the fictional City of Yorktown.
As in both the regular UrbanPlan curriculum and real life, competitors must balance financial constraints, competing neighborhood priorities, historical preservation, the city’s desire for increased jobs, tax revenues, affordable housing, and concerns about social, economic and climate resilience.
However, the Americas Competition takes the exercise one step further by requiring teams to address additional challenges posed by the Yorktown City Council in response to current events. Past competitions have focused on topics such as mitigating the effects of declining office occupancy, increasing public open space, and providing affordable/attainable housing. See the competition challenges from previous years below:
RFP Addenda From Past Competitions:
Funding for this competition was generously provided through a donation to ULI’s Annual Fund from the A&E Housing Foundation.
This year’s competition took place virtually on Saturday, May 31st from 1pm-6pm ET. Congratulations to the winning teams:
- 1st place: Highland Parkitects from Highland Park High School in Dallas, TX
- 2nd place: Concrete Visionaries from Brooklyn Technical High School in Brooklyn, NY & Phoenix Development from Bloor Collegiate Institute in Toronto, ON
- 3rd place: TMC Estates from Marvin E. Robinson School of Business and Management at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center in Dallas, TX
Stay tuned for announcements about the 2026 Americas Student Competition!
Read more about the competition in Urban Land Magazine here.