The Federal Planning Division of the American Planning Association has recognized Professor Mark Gillem's firm, The Urban Collaborative, with seven national design awards of the seventeen presented nationwide.
Above: Professor Mark Gillem
This is an unprecedented number of awards that reflects great credit on work by Gillem, a professor in the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at UO, and his team’s commitment to collaborative and participatory processes as well as their focus on sustainability at all scales. The firm’s projects focused on military installations in the United States and Puerto Rico.
The competition included projects submitted by some of the largest architecture and planning firms in the country doing work for the US federal government around the globe. A total of seventeen projects were recognized in this year’s program.
Gillem, FAIA, AICP, serves as director of the architecture PhD program and the university’s Urban Design Lab. He is also principal of The Urban Collaborative.
His team, which consists primarily of interns and graduates from the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts, received the following awards:
• Outstanding Federal Planning Project – Honor Award
Fort Buchanan Area Development Plan, Puerto Rico
• Outstanding Area/Site Development Plan – Merit Award
Fort Knox South Wilson Area Development Plan, Kentucky
(completed as a subcontractor to Merrick and Company)
• Outstanding Technical Plan or Study – Honor Award
US Marine Corps Forces Reserve Training Center Customer Concept Document at Parks Reserve Forces Training Area, California
(completed as a subcontractor to Merrick and Company)
• Outstanding Technical Plan or Study – Honor Award
Fort Hood Area Development Execution Plan, Texas
• Outstanding Technical Plan or Study – Merit Award
Parks Reserve Forces Training Area – Area Development Execution Plan, California
• Outstanding Environmental Planning Project – Honor Award
Parks Reserve Forces Training Area Sustainability Component Plan, California
• Outstanding Collaborative Planning Project - Honor Award
Fort DeRussy Area Development Plan, Hawaii
Gillem and his team will receive their awards at the Federal Planning Division’s conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 31.
This is hardly the first time the APA has recognized Gillem for his work. In 2014 he was co-winner for Outstanding Federal Planning Project; winner of Area Development Plan; winner of Outstanding Sustainable Planning, Design or Development Initiative; and honorable mention for USAF Installation Development Plans and Template.
A blind peer review jury led by faculty from Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning selected the awards.