Complete the Community

A Housing & Urban Design Competition

Council Member David Robinson, FAIA will announce the competition winners at the Houston City Council meeting on Wednesday August 22, 2018.

Winners will be posted on the website after the announcement.

This competition is hosted by the City of Houston in partnership with AIA Houston.

Houston, TX

Complete the Community: Urban Design Competition


COMPETITION PROGRAM
A small-scale ‘tactical urbanism’ demonstration project, designed to last over the course of several days up to a month, to change the way the selected place is perceived and how it can work better for the Gulfton community.  The intent is to gather information and empower residents, area civic leaders, and property owners on how to make potential high-impact changes to the Gulfton urban streetscape utilizing low cost materials, either inexpensively obtained or donated, and volunteer labor. 

Submitting teams should consider long term solutions to the streetscape as opposed to installations that could only be temporary in nature.  The winning solution will be one that offers a way to gain public and government support for investing in a future permanent project and will inspire new ways in which the urban space is shaped by both the public and area civic leaders. 

The date of implementation is to be determined between the selected team, the City of Houston, and Gulfton community stakeholders. Teams should also include a plan  for removal of any physical elements after the time of the  intervention has passed.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS (for Urban Design Competition)
Each entry should feature a conceptual solution for a resilient urban intervention that includes the following items:

1. A text statement of no more than 250 words describing the project concept and design intent. This should be on a horizontally formatted page and saved within entry file as the first page.

2. Required minimum drawings include:
       site plan in context of the proposed site
       two streetscape elevations
       exterior renderings in context of proposed site
       *Be sure to note graphic scale on all drawings and North arrow on all plans

3. For cost estimating purposes, specialty elements of the streetscape and landscape should be clearly identified. Outline specifications and annotated drawings are encouraged for project implementation. 

Assemble your competition entry as a single pdf document with no more than 10 pages and no larger than 10MB. Pages should be horizontally formatted. Entries will be viewed electronically on an HD television screen as well as printed out on 8.5” x 11” paper for each jury member.

*Multiple images and text are allowed on each page. Graphic and concept clarity are the responsibility of the entrant. 

HOW TO UPLOAD YOUR ENTRY
1. Fill out the Online Registration Form to obtain a unique Registrant ID# for each competition entry.

2. Save your competition entry as a single pdf document no larger than 10MB. The file should be saved as a pdf file named “registrantID#_entry”.

3. Download and complete the Title Entry Form for each competition entry. This form should be saved as a pdf file named “registrantID#_titleform”.
This should be saved and uploaded as a separate file. DO NOT INCLUDE THIS FORM IN YOUR ENTRY FILE.

4. Sign in to aiahouston.org by clicking on the Login button on the top right of the website. If you are not an AIA Houston member, you can create a free login profile by following the Create Account prompts in the Login window.

5. Upload your files at the AIA Houston Document Upload Services site.
Select Category “Other”. PLEASE NOTE – YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO REACH THIS SITE. SEE STEP 4.


COMPETITION TIMELINE
June 1              Competition Announcement
June 8              Competition Open & Website Live
TBA                  Public meetings & deadline for questions
July 13             Answers to all questions posted online
August 3          Submission Deadline
August 17        Competition Jury
August 25        Competition Winners Announced