Design team members Bhatt, Amichandwala, Williams, Brady and Rangwala

A team of five Georgia Tech graduate students who devised a plan to turn an abandoned copper mine into an economically feasible, pedestrian friendly development captured a top award in a national student urban design competition.

The interdisciplinary team competed against 81 teams from 25 universities in the 2005 Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition sponsored by the Urban Land Institute.

The teams had to propose a master plan for one of two development sites in the Salt Lake Valley on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. The plans were judged on the basis of pedestrian friendliness, economic feasibility, sustainable development, environmental impact and social responsibility.

Team member Sean Brady said Tech's entry, "Sustainable Roots," paired suburban smart growth with sensitivity to the site's existing heritage and community. Tech's entry won an honorable mention along with teams from Harvard and MIT.

"This was the first time a Tech team had entered the competition," Brady said. "In the past, the competition had always focused on under utilized urban areas, but this time we were faced with developing either a mostly abandoned copper mining area or a wilderness site.

"We chose the copper mine because as planning students we felt that we should work with an existing developed area rather than perpetuate urban sprawl."

Members of the team were Chirayu Bhatt and Jeffrey Williams from the city and regional planning program, Jimmy Amichandwala and Huzefa Rangwala from the School of Architecture and Brady from the College of Management. Architecture professor Richard Dagenhart and alumnus Brian Leary, Arch 96, served as advisers.

To see Tech's entry, please visit http://www.udcompetition.uli.org/ and click on Finalists/Hon. Mentions.

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