UrbanPlan
What is UrbanPlan? UrbanPlan teaches high school students how market forces clash with non-market forces to create the built environment.
The academically rigorous program was jointly developed by ULI and the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and is deployed by District Councils across the country.
The UrbanPlan curriculum asks student development teams to respond to an RFP for the redevelopment of a blighted site in a hypothetical community. Teams address challenging financial, market, social, political, and design issues; develop a pro forma and three-dimensional model of their plan; and present their proposal to a “City Council” of ULI members that awards the development contract to the winning team.
Over the course of the program, volunteers will be asked to serve in one of the following capacities:
- “Facilitators” challenge the students to think more critically about the UrbanPlan issues and the specific responsibilities of their team “role”.
- “Presenters” engage in an interactive discussion with students on their own project work and how it relates to issues and decisions the students are struggling with in UrbanPlan.
- “City Council Members” hear student presentations, engage and challenge their proposals as in an actual city council hearing, and award the development contract to the winning team.
How does UrbanPlan work in the Classroom? Each team member assumes one of five roles: finance director, marketing director, environment and equity director, neighborhood liaison, or site planner. Through these roles, students develop a visceral understanding of the various stakeholders in the development process and the challenge of reconciling their often competing agendas to create a well-designed, market-responsive, and sustainable project.
Teams address challenging financial, market, social, political, and design issues; develop a proforma and three-dimensional model of their plan; and present their proposal to a “City Council” of ULI members that awards the development contract to the winning team.
Over the course of the 15 class-hour projects and prior to the presentations, land use professionals, who have attended UrbanPlan volunteer training, interact several times with the student teams.
As “Facilitators,” UP volunteers challenge the students to think more critically about the UrbanPlan issues and the specific responsibilities of their “role” (Finance, Market, Site Planner, Environment Equity Director, or Neighborhood Liaison).
As “City Council,” UP volunteers hear student presentations, engage and challenge their proposals as in an actual City Council hearing, and award the development contract to the winning team.
In October 2010 the George Lucas Educational Foundation selected UrbanPlan as one of only 20 programs running in the United States, from kindergarten through 12th grade, for its “What Works in Education” series.
For more information on UrbanPlan, go to the following link, and if you would like to get more information on how to become an UrbanPlan volunteer, contact [email protected].