Parks That Protect
Highlights leading-edge waterfront park projects that are designed to protect their neighborhoods from climate threats while improving residents’ health and quality of life.
Parks and Open Spaces
The Building Healthy Places Initiative (BHP) works with ULI members and partners to explore cross-sector strategies to advance equitable access to parks. Through reports, articles, project profiles, technical assistance opportunities, and a ULI Learning course, BHP collaborates with real estate developers, public sector park professionals, and nonprofit organizations to identify and share how parks can support real estate and economic development, health and social equity, and urban resilience. Please visit each program page to learn more.
Key Activities
Reports | ULI reports outline opportunities for integrating park and open space investments into local plans and projects and include recommendations for related financing, design, phasing, and community engagement strategies.
Park Profiles and Articles | ULI provides project profiles and articles on topics, including outlining best practices in integrating parks and open spaces into real estate and urban development, advancing equitable access to parks, and understanding the characteristics of high-quality parks.
Parks Technical Assistance | ULI hosts Advisory Services and Technical Assistance panels centered on parks, with goals that include:
- Promoting and improving equitable access to parks
- Identifying solutions to local park challenges
- Exploring opportunities for cities, towns, residents, and the real estate industry to support and benefit from park investments
District Council Cohort for Park Equity | Five ULI District Councils in cities across the United States were selected to participate in a program focused on advancing action on equity in parks and open space over a 12-month period. Through the District Council Cohort for Park Equity, local teams conducted Technical Assistance Panels to provide tangible recommendations for improving park equity and access issues in their communities. Access the program summary report here.
ULI Learning | A ULI Learning course explores the value that parks create and builds the case for prioritizing park development, funding, and operations. Through multiple case studies, students will learn from real estate developers, public sector park professionals, and nonprofit organizations about the role of parks in supporting real estate and economic development, health and social equity, and urban resilience.
Major Reports
Five Characteristics of High-Quality Parks
Presents a framework for park quality that can help all park developers and managers systematically assess quality to make investments and address longstanding disparities in access to high-quality parks.
10 Principles for Enhancing Equitable Access to Parks
Distills and synthesizes key themes, lessons learned, and best practices from the recommendations of 14 ULI technical assistance efforts on parks and open spaces.
The Pandemic and the Public Realm
Profiles over 30 innovative public space programs and projects that were created in response to COVID-19 and showcases how temporary, flexible, equitable, and iterative projects can be more responsive to quickly changing needs while building support for future projects in the recovery.
Pavement to Parks
Presents stories of cities and organizations that have worked to transform or enhance spaces formerly dedicated to cars into parks and open spaces that support recreation, community engagement, sustainability and resilience, and neighborhood connectivity and revitalization.
Successful Partnerships for Parks
Explores case studies and examples of successful partnerships for equitable parks, and distill lessons learned from these projects, to inform potential partnership arrangements.
The Case for Open Space
Outlines four compelling cases for developers to invest in open space and includes insights from developers, public officials, and others working at the intersection of open space and real estate development.