Twenty developments from the Americas have been selected as finalists in this year�s Urban Land Institute�s Awards for Excellence: The Americas competition, including five projects from the San Francisco Bay Area.

From this group, up to 10 will be selected as winners of the competition, which will be announced May 20 in Phoenix during ULI’s Real Estate Summit at the Spring Council Forum.    

Each of the finalists, selected from 148 entries throughout North and South America, have “succeeded in raising the bar in demonstrating creativity and best practices in land use and property development,” says jury chair Marty Jones, president of Corcoran Jennison Cos., Boston.
The Bay Area finalists are:

  • Broadway Family Apartments, San Francisco (Developer: Chinatown Community Development Center; Architect: Daniel Solomon Design Partners) Designed for low-income families, Broadway Family Apartments threads 81 residential units through three buildings joined by interior courtyards in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. The project complements the historic character of the waterfront district, gives affordable housing a sense of permanence and dignity, and helps heal the scar left by the Embarcadero Freeway.
  • Ed Roberts Campus, Berkeley (Developers: Ed Roberts Campus/Equity Community Builders; Architect: Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects)Conceived by a consortium of partners committed to serving people with disabilities, Ed Roberts Campus is an international center for the Independent Living Movement in Berkeley. The 1.6-acre, 65,000-sq-ft facility was constructed using universal design principles and provides mutually-supportive office space, a childcare center, and direct access to a Bay Area Rapid Transit station.
  • Mosaica, San Francisco (Developer: Citizens Housing Corp.; Architect: Daniel Solomon Design Partners) Mosaica creates a new mixed-use block in San Francisco’s Mission District with 93 units of low-income family housing, 24 apartments for formerly homeless seniors, 21 subsidized ownership units, 13 market-rate condominiums, and 11,600 sq ft of light industrial workshop space. The mix of incomes and uses is an appropriate addition to this diverse neighborhood, helping mediate demands for affordable housing and preservation of working-class jobs.
  • Tassafaronga Village, Oakland (Developer: Oakland Housing Authority; Architect: David Baker + Partners) Located in an underserved neighborhood of Oakland, the Tassafaronga Village comprises 157-low-income rental units and a medical clinic on a 7.5-acre brownfield site. A careful site design that modulates the scale and mix of buildings helps to repair a deteriorating neighborhood fabric and soften the borders of an industrial neighborhood.
  • Westfield San Francisco Centre, San Francisco (Developers: Forest City Enterprises and the Westfield Group; Architects: Kohn Pederson Fox/RTKL/Westfield Design)After an eight-year development process, Westfield San Francisco Centre has restored the city’s historic Emporium building, boasting 1.5-million-sq-ft of commercial space and attracting an estimated 25 million visitors to this once-distressed area of San Francisco.

The competition is part of the institute’s Awards for Excellence program, established in 1979, which is based on ULI’s guiding principle that the achievement of excellence in land use practice should be recognized and rewarded. ULI’s Awards for Excellence recognize the full development process of a project, not just its architecture or design. The criteria for the awards include leadership, contribution to the community, innovations, public/private partnership, environmental protection and enhancement, response to societal needs and financial viability.