The UCSD Department of Urban Studies and Planning student team—aka Triton Associates—won NAIOP San Diego’s 6th annual University Challenge on April 21 at Hall of Champions in Balboa Park. The team won for a proposal to redevelop San Diego’s Seaport Village.

Team members (above) are Jenni Cen, Michelle Markiewicz, Albert Liang, Cristina Martinez and Nicholas Maldarelli.

Pictured here are SDSU team members participating in the challenge: Andrew Rosenkranz (at mic), Marco Vaticano, Dominic Chanes, Jay Javeed and Marisa Merchant.

The judges liked the UCSD team’s six-point plan, which called for:

• Iconic Design with a hotel tower that serves as a beacon for the city’s skyline;

• Blue Tech Incubators;

• A “Green Necklace” that expands Downtown’s green space;

• A Fishermen’s Market with affordable local products; A View Corridor that maximizes SD Bay views; and

• Off-Site Improvements that reduce traffic lane-width and improve pedestrian access to the Harbor Light@Seaport Village Trolley Station.

This was the first year the competition required a people-mover in the proposals.

Above are USD team members Hunter Ainslie, Gus Avarello, Marisa Marsh, Allan Glenn and Lloyd Hoppel (not pictured is Shawn Bharadwaj).

The teams in the competition had access to volunteer architects from LPA Inc, Ware Malcomb and Carrier Johnson. Architects David Gilmore, Francisco Nunez and Kevin Leslie of LPA mentored the winning team. Other volunteer consultants included Linda Menashe of Chicago Title, Mike Leake of the law firm Sheppard Mullin, appraiser Dave David and CBRE’s Mark McGovern.