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Undergraduate Programs Graduate Programs Certficate Programs High School Summer Program
Scholarships and Financial Aid Visit Information Sessions
Faculty Research Professional Practice Student Work Research Centers & Institutes Research Labs Galleries and Exhibits
Campus to Capitol Mentoring Programs Student Organizations Spaces and Studio Education Abroad Competitions Professional Development Student Resources Alumni
People News and Events Accreditation Contact Us Giving
Instructor at the front of a creative room with a digital sign that says ArchiNova 2.0

Competitions

Home Competitions

We collaborate and create to crush the competition. At the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, students can put their skills to work individually or as part of an interdisciplinary team in a number of competitions throughout the year. 

Undergraduate Level

ArchiNova

“Shark Tank” meets the design world in ArchiNova, an entrepreneurial competition for architecture students. Leveraging the critical thinking skills, creativity, spacial prowess and more that they’ve gleaned in the program, students are charged to concieve innovative ideas for new businesses, initiatives and products that make a positive impact on society. ArchiNova is a semester-long competition held every spring; students benefit from professional mentorship from Suzanna Kelley, FAIA, chief experience officer at McKinley Advisors to hone their idea.  Finalists go “into the tank” to pitch their idea to an expert jury.

Contacts: 
Ken Filler, kfiller@umd.edu
Jessica Bowers (GA), jjbowers@umd.edu

Harold Adams Interdisciplinary Charette

The Harold Adams Interdisciplinary Charette is an intensive, collaborative design competition for undergraduate students from UMD’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and Texas A&M. Taking place in either College Station, TX or Washington, D.C., the charette is a two-day challenge to reimagine a real-world space. Professional mentors guide at each step, with teams presenting finished plans to a jury at the end of day two.  

Contact: Jen Sanderson, jensan@umd.edu

 

Graduate Level

ULI- Gerald Hines Student Urban Design and Development Competition

The Urban Land Institute- Gerald Hines Student Urban Design and Development Competition is a national urban design competition open to all graduate students at the School of Architecture, Planning and Presentation. The competition challenges multi-disciplinary teams to propose a large-scale urban design intervention for a selected site in a major North American city. In the first phase of the competition, teams of five students pursuing degrees in at least two different disciplines have two weeks to devise an urban design plan and a corresponding development program. University of Maryland teams have won this competition two times and been finalists on numerous occasions.  

Contact: Matthew Bell, mattbell@umd.edu

HUD Innovation in Affordable Housing (IAH)

The IAH national competition is designed to build a future of practitioners eager to fulfill the need for affordable, sustainable housing. It challenges interdisciplinary, graduate-level teams to address the social, economic and environmental issues that surround a real-world housing problem in the United States, by creating innovative and original solutions through development, design and finance. IAH is open to all graduate students at the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Contact: Maria Day-Marshall, mdaymars@umd.edu

NAIOP Capital Challenge

The Capital Challenge is a case study competition hosted annually by NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, where teams from collegiate real estate programs go head-to-head to develop and present proposals for a real property in the Washington metropolitan area. Teams must formulate a proposed investment strategy and develop a comprehensive analysis with recommendations that will maximize the potential of the property, while showing that it is both feasible and financially advantageous.  

Contact: Tanya Bansal, tbansal@umd.udu

School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
3835 Campus Drive, College Park, MD 20742
archinfo@umd.edu 301.405.8000