UrbanPlan: Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute Profile
Ninth grade students at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute were recently surprised and excited to learn the myriad of complex decision
UrbanPlan
UrbanPlan has been operating in ULI Toronto for over seven years in more than nine local high schools including Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School and Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute. The program has been profiled in Building Magazine, Urban Toronto, and Metro News. The 15-hour classroom curriculum provides high school students with a hands-on experience in developing realistic land use solutions to real estate challenges and provides them with an understanding of how residents can engage in the development their city. ULI volunteers work with student teams in the classroom for 1-3 hours per semester, facilitating discussions and serving as City Council members for final development presentations. For more information, check our informational brochure.
In order to confirm all individuals participation with this volunteer training program (90 minutes virtually) we would ask that you register on the link below.
Urban Plan is a great way to expose students to the way we think about city building as a team. It involves critical thinking outside of the regular curriculum and allows students to continuously work together to refine their final design and presentation. I always look forward to Urban Plan sessions with different classes to speak about real life scenarios and how it could be applied to their design.
Michelle Luk, Marketing Manager, Dream Asset Management
The mission
The mission of UrbanPlan is to generate more positive and informed dialogue about land use at the local level through the education of students – our future voters, neighbours, public officials, and land use professionals.
How does it work?
UrbanPlan is a project-based learning curriculum developed for high school classes focused on disciplines in business, city planning, real estate, architecture or law. During the project, students develop a financial proforma and physical model of their plan for an urban infill, mixed-use redevelopment project, and present their proposal to a mock City Council that awards the development contract to the winning team.
Through UrbanPlan’s 15-hour classroom curriculum, students learn the essence of development – providing the foundation required for any informed land use discussion. Over the course of the exercise, ULI members act as “facilitators” in the classroom, challenging students to think more critically about the UrbanPlan issues and the specific responsibilities of each of the assigned roles. ULI members may also serve on a “City Council” to judge the teams’ proposals.
In the Classroom
In the 15 class hours of the curriculum, students form development teams and respond to an RFP to redevelop a 5½ block site in a fictional city. Each team member assumes one of five roles:
• Financial Analyst
• Marketing Director
• City Liaison
• Neighbourhood Liaison
• Site Planner
Through the process, students discover the dynamic fundamental challenges of development: how market forces clash and collaborate with non-market forces to create the built environment. Through these roles, students develop a deeper understanding of the various stakeholders in the development process and the challenge of reconciling their often-competing agendas to create a well designed, market responsive, financeable, and buildable project.
It’s amazing to watch students start to ‘click’ with planning concepts through the UrbanPlan program. Helping them appreciate the opportunities, constraints and trade-offs that come with urban development hopefully inspires a better understanding of the world they live in.
Melanie Melnyk. Project Manager, Strategic Initiatives at City of Toronto
Volunteering with UrbanPlan
Volunteers accepted into the program are invited to a 1-day training session for hands-on experience with the program and tools. Trained volunteers serve in the classroom as Facilitators and as members of a mock City Council for final student presentations.
Volunteer Roles
Facilitator
The role with the greatest impact, most responsibility, and least time commitment is the role of Facilitator. Facilitators challenge the students to think more critically about the UrbanPlan issues and the specific responsibilities of their respective roles.
Facilitators draw deeply on professional experience and are rewarded by creating excitement and inspiration in students for the urban development process.
City Council Member
Students present their final proposals to a five-person mock City Council comprised of volunteers. By challenging the students’ work as if in an actual City Council meeting, the volunteers assess whether the proposals are responsive to the RFP, grounded in the facts of the UrbanPlan case, and consistent with reality. The City Council then awards the contract to the winning team.
If you’re interested in UrbanPlan please fill out the UrbanPlan Volunteer Application and send to [email protected] for more information or to become a volunteer!
UrbanPlan Program Participants
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Students deliver their UrbanPlan presentations to a mock city council.
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ULI Toronto members sit in as mock city council members at the Wilfrid Laurier High School final presentations.
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Loretto Abbey Catholic High School students work on their mixed-use redevelopment project.