N.C. design team advances to finals

A team of students from N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill is a finalist in a national urban design competition.

The team that wins the 8th annual Urban Land Institute Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition will net $50,000. The NCSU/UNC team's entry will go up against similar urban development proposals from teams from Harvard, University of Maryland at College Park and the University of Pennsylvania.

The challenge: Design a development site on 73.5 acres in downtown San Diego. The competition is based on a hypothetical redevelopment project city planners want to take on in San Diego.

The student teams were to act as a full-service development team and create a financial plan, a land-use plan and an urban design scheme.

Nearly 660 students on 132 teams applied to compete. The UNC/NCSU team members include Maria Papiez, Daria Khramtsova, Rebecca Myers, Jeff Pleshek, and Matt Tomasulo. The team's adviser is Robin Fran Abrams, head of NCSU's School of Architecture.