Student Planning & Design Competition
May 9 Post-Competition Webinar
Join the finalist teams, jurors, and organizers for a special post-competition webinar, "Envisioning Sprawl Repair: Lessons from the 2025 Student Planning and Design Competition," on Friday, May 9, at 1:00 PM ET.
----------------------
2025: Eighth Annual Student Planning and Design Competition Recap - Denver, CO
The 2025 competition site is the Colfax & Federal Clover Leaf, a 46-acre parcel in Denver, CO, the 2025 National Planning Conference host city. This site is adjacent to Empower Field at Mile High to the east and multi-family neighborhoods to the west.
Twenty-three student teams submitted complete proposals. After an initial jury screening, three finalists presented their proposals to the final jury during a public session at the National Planning Conference on March 31, 2025. Thank you to all the student teams for submitting their proposals!
The APA Urban Design and Preservation Division, Divisions Council, and Student Representatives Council co-sponsor the competition.
Download the Competition Prompt
Please visit the APA Competition Webpage for further details and the timeline.
Review student submissions
----------------------
2025 APA Student Planning and Design Competition Finalists
----------------------
First Place
UDP Collective
University of Texas-Austin
GreenLink
Chaochen Fan, Kunth Shah, Edwin Flores, Maria Rubio Figueiredo, Despina Matzakos
----------------------
Second Place
5280 Planning Collective
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Colfax Core
Oliver Oglesby, Matthew Thibodeau, Cameron Hull, Christopher Cahill, Lindsay Crockett
----------------------
Third Place
Planning Panthers
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Colfax Clover Creek
Dulce Carreno, Blythe Waldbillig, Shane O'Neil, Cinthia Tellez Silva, Eli Norlande
----------------------
Honorable Mentions
Harvard Graduate School of Design - Urban Synergy Collective
Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
Tufts University - Lucky Streets Initiative
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign- CU 4 CO
----------------------
Many Thanks to Our Entrants!
Ball State University - Ecosphere Connections
Ball State University - Helix
Ball State University - Orbital
Harvard Graduate School of Design - Crimson Design Group
Harvard University School of Design - urbanISM
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - UFFF
San Jose State University - Quadrifoil 5280
University of Oklahoma Norman - Sooner Studios
University of Central Florida - Creative Village Group
University of Illinois at Chicago - 1871 Studios
University of Iowa - Hawkeye Planners
University of Michigan - Maize Movement
University of New Mexico - Burque Visionaries
University of South Florida - Imagine Bulls
University of Southern California - Gridworks Studio
University of Texas at San Antonio - Rowdy Runners
----------------------
Final Jurors
Peter Park, Peter Park LLC
Lucy Kempf, Executive Director, Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County Planning Department
Manish Kumar, Executive Director, Denver Community Planning and Development Department
Christopher Rzomp, Cities and Urban Design Leader, Gensler
Nina Idemudia, Chief Executive Officer, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Chicago, IL
----------------------
Initial Jurors
Michelle Arteaga Yori, David Goodman, Rachel Bush, Kearra Bright, Matthew Cox, Yogesh Saoji, Kurt Culbertson, Lauren Trice, Kristian Maldanado, David Dixon, David Spillane, Sofia Chiappero, Friederike Mittner, Nicole Joslin, Jordan Powell, TJ Boyce, Scott Archer, Michael Brown, Gwen Wright, Ignacio Correa-Ortiz, Mary Topp, Jonathan Feverson, Christine Mondor, Christine Carlyle, Pratibha Singh, Adrian Carver, Joshua Palmeri, Christin Brandow, Ana Costa
----------------------
Competition Organizers
APA Urban Design and Preservation Division: Marcel Acosta, Kris Krider, Chris Rzomp
APA Divisions Council: Meg Williams
APA Student Representatives Council: Kohl Malo, Beneetta Mary Jose
APA Staff: Amanda Miller
City of Denver, Department of Community Planning and Development: Christin Brandow
----------------------