MBA Student Helps Represent UT at Urban Land CONTEST

McCombs MBA student Ryan White was part of the team that finished in the top four in the 2024 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition in Seattle. The four other members of the team were master’s degree students from the School of Architecture. “This has been an amazing opportunity to work with fellow graduate students in disciplines I have had little exposure to,” White says. “We all see it as a unique honor to represent UT at the finals of this prestigious competition.”

The UT group was selected from 59 teams representing more than 22 universities. The other finalists included two teams from the Georgia Institute of Technology and one from the University of Maryland, College Park. One of the Georgia Tech teams was the eventual winner. This year’s ULI challenge tasked students with transforming underused county government buildings and land, as well as the surrounding 15.4 acres, in downtown Seattle. 

As the master developer, each team was required to come up with a proposal to turn the area into a thriving, mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood. The area is home to historical properties, is next to several neighborhoods, and is bounded by an interstate highway and the central business district. Each finalist team received $10,000, and the winning team received $50,000.