ULI Urban Innovation Initiative – a platform to challenge the innovative skills of emerging urban development practitioners and generate fresh ideas that could shape the city’s urban landscape for decades to come – have announced three finalists for the Global Ideas Competition ‘George St 2020: Re-imagine Sydney’s main street’. The competition jury praised entrants, all of whom are under the age of 35, for accepting the challenge of transforming a traditional car focussed street into an inviting and activated series of places for people.

The finalists selected by the Jury, comprised of Lucy Turnbull AO, Michelle Tabet, Marcus Westbury, John Choi, David McCracken and Simon Kilbane, include:

• Nicola Balch, Landscape Architect at McGregor Coxall and Albert Quizon Albert, Architect at CHRFOI
  
• Krystal Pua (team leader), Architectural graduate at Tropman and Tropman
• Christian Vitulli (team leader), Landscape Architect at Site Image

“Proponents addressed the challenge by considering George Street as an activation spine, proposing a range of enabling infrastructure for people to inhabit the street more comfortably, through better amenity, design and across a wide range of uses,” said the jury. “Proponents addressed the task at a variety of scales – with many grasping the challenge of human identity within a major urban space. Landscape, connection, place, colour, program, moment, intervention, scale, human scale, journey and revitalisation were common themes across the portfolio of works.”

In the next stage of the ULI Urban Innovation Competition, the shortlisted finalists will have the advantage of mentoring through property and design specialists specifically selected to address the particular concept or idea. The final winner, announced in early November, will present their ideas at ULI’s 2016 Asia Pacific Summit.

ULI Urban Innovation Initiative
urbaninnovations.com.au