APA Student Design Competition

Co-sponsored by the American Planning Association (APA) Urban Design and Preservation Division, Divisions Council, and Student Representatives Council, APA presents the Annual Student Design Competition as part of NPC23. Now in its sixth year, the competition invited teams of students pursuing graduate degrees in planning to create planning and design proposals that demonstrate a multidisciplinary and multifaceted approach to promoting public health, equitable access to nature, inclusive design, and high-quality, affordable housing options for the Logan Triangle area, one of Philadelphia's largest concentrations of vacant land located in the city's Upper North District. At this session, competition finalists from the University of South Florida, Arizona State University, and the University of Memphis will present their proposals to the competition’s Final Jury of three planning and design experts:

Final Jury

• Eleanor Sharpe, AICP, LEED AP, Executive Director at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission


• Deborah L. Myerson, AICP, Founder/Principal of Myerson Consulting and member of the APA Divisions Council Executive Committee


• Christopher Rzomp, AICP, LEED AP, Cities and Urban Design Leader at Gensler and leading design expert with the APA Urban Design and Preservation Division

At the conclusion of the session, the Final Jury will rank the finalists and select the winner and first runner-up. Prior to this session, all competition submissions were reviewed and the three finalists were selected by the competition’s Initial Jury: Christopher Rzomp, Initial Jury Chair; Selina Angel, Designer and Planner for Work5shop; Kris Krider, Planning Supervisor for Urban Design and Research for Arlington County, Virginia; Melissa Lindsjo, AICP, CNU-A, Urban Planner at the National Capital Planning Commission; Nicole Ozdemir, Senior Planner at the Philadelphia Planning Commission; Hadley Peterson, AICP-C, Project Manager at Radian — Denver; Karin Schierhold, Urban Planner at the National Capital Planning Commission; and Mike Sherman, Director of Policy and Research at the National Capital Planning Commission.

NPC Peer Reviewers assigned this presentation a learning level of Foundational. For more on learning-level descriptions, visit our General Information Page.