ULI Americas announced its 2024 Awards for Excellence finalists, including the following SOM projects: 49 South Van Ness and 1550 Mission in San Francisco, as well as Lincoln Common in Chicago. ULI Americas Awards for Excellence is the centerpiece of ULI’s efforts to identify and promote best practices in all types of real estate development.
In San Francisco, 49 South Van Ness and 1550 Mission are adjacent projects—a mixed-use, public-private development that catalyzes neighborhood redevelopment and redefines the municipal experience. The former provides modern office space for the four municipal departments responsible for the stewardship of the city’s built environment, while 1550 Mission—a former bottling factory—includes a residential tower with 25 percent of units priced below market rate. Together, the projects offer 1.2 million square feet of housing, offices, and retail around a public plaza and landscaped garden.
Lincoln Common (pictured below) reinvigorates the former site of Children’s Memorial Hospital, which anchored the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago for 130 years. Developers McCaffery and Hines sought to bring vibrancy back to this six-acre parcel with the adaptive reuse of a turn-of-the-century hospital building and more than one acre of public space, including a grand central plaza for gathering. Designed with community and municipality input, the project offers a mix of new outdoor spaces alongside places to live, work, and shop, creating a new hub in one of Chicago’s most dynamic neighborhoods.
The ULI Americas Awards for Excellence program evaluates projects across a number of factors, including achievements in marketplace acceptance, design, planning, technology, amenities, economic impact, management, community engagement, innovation, and sustainability. Winners will be announced later this summer.
