Collins Award | ULI Westchester/Fairfield

The Arthur Collins Sr. Visionary Award for Leadership in Land Use (The Collins Award) recognizes a person, team or organization whose efforts demonstrate a commitment to the highest standards of responsible real estate development in our region. The award honors the legacy of New York area developer Arthur Collins Sr., a longtime ULI member who is regarded as one of America’s most innovative real estate developers during the last half of the 20th Century.

ULI Westchester/Fairfield is sponsoring The Collins Awards to recognize a person, team or organization whose innovative and creative vision has resulted in a completed project or body of work that reflects the ideals and mission of the Urban Land Institute. The mission of the Urban Land Institute is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. This year we will be awarding two awards, one to a private sector person/company and one to a public sector group/individual or academic. Past Award Winners are noted here.

Nominations are welcomed by any ULI Westchester/Fairfield member in good standing. We request that you submit your nomination no later than June 15, 2023, for consideration. There is no fee for submission. Award winners will be notified via email during late June. Multiple submissions will be accepted.

Please note that the nominated person/company/ organization should have a demonstrated commitment to responsible, sustainable, smart and innovative development within the Westchester/Fairfield geographic area in order to qualify.

About Arthur Collins, Sr

For over 50 years, Arthur Collins, Sr. forged a reputation as a man of vision and as a creative real estate developer. In the 1950s and 1960s, he led the development division of Collins-Tuttle and Laird Properties in New York City. Recognizing opportunities in suburban areas, he founded Collins Development in 1970 and developed the first condominium project in Connecticut called Lyon Farm. His firm created mixed-used developments in the waterfront communities of Harbor Plaza in Stamford, Connecticut, and Palmer Square in Princeton, New Jersey. During his career, Collins oversaw the development of over three million square feet of office space and over 1,500 residential units. With a reputation and expertise for bringing new life to downtowns, he redeveloped the historic buildings of Washington Street in Norwalk, Connecticut and the JP Morgan estate in Princeton, NJ. His commercial and residential projects have received numerous awards for the responsible use of land as well as captivating design. Arthur Collins, Sr. died in 2005 and his legacy lives on.

Past Winners

Carl Ordemann (posthumous) and Scenic Hudson were Selected for the 2023 Award

Carl Ordemann, AIA, as a Principal at Perkins Eastman, was an extraordinarily talented architect and leader and served as a pivotal member of the Perkins Eastman community, as well as the architectural and the development community. At the time of his passing, Carl had more than 45 years of experience in the profession and managed numerous projects for the firm, representing more than 60 million square feet of new construction and 30 million square feet of interior alterations, and including such transformative projects as The Willoughby in Brooklyn, TSX Broadway in Manhattan, and 440 Hamilton in White Plains. As the firm’s practice area leader for the commercial mixed-use practice, Carl directed large teams on complex projects across a variety of program types, including commercial, residential, mixed-use, and government work. In addition to his award-winning portfolio, Carl contributed his expertise as a guest critic at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and in teaching roles at New York University’s Real Estate Institute and the New York Institute of Technology. He managed Perkins Eastman’s New York office’s commercial, corporate and residential studio and the firm’s Stamford office. Prior to joining Perkins Eastman, Carl was the Managing Principal in charge of both Perkins & Will’s New York City and Shanghai offices, and before that was a Senior Partner at HLW where he also was the President of their Design Build and Project Management division. Carl was a committed ULI member for over two decades and was active with the West/FF Advisory Board since 2013. He actively and enthusiastically curated many programs including the City Exchange program, programs on Historic Preservation and the Future of our Cities and was an active participant in the ULI NY Mixed Use Blue Product Council since 2019. In addition to being a consummate professional, Carl was also a warm and affable colleague, always ready to offer words of support and lending a helping hand.

Scenic Hudson has been engaged for sixty years in making the Hudson Valley a great place to live, work and play by preserving and strengthening the regions’ great assets- beautiful open spaces, working farms, and historic cities and town centers. Through conservation, advocacy, community growth, climate, environmental education and trail project initiatives, Scenic Hudson has protected natural resources spanning over 7,000 acres throughout the Hudson Valley, including in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Orange and Rockland Counties. Its initiatives protect clean drinking water, create new parks, advance environmental justice and mitigate the effects of climate change. The organization has been involved in the creation of forty-five parks and in enhancing over two dozen preserves, historic sites and trails, some of which have provided communities with first-time access to the Hudson River and transformed obsolete industrial sites to riverfront destinations. Significantly, Scenic Hudson’s parks are open daily, free-of-charge and are great equalizers among groups and individuals of different backgrounds, advancing diversity, equity and inclusion by being accessible to all. One of Scenic Hudson’s recent initiatives of significant impact in Westchester County is its role in closing an important gap in the Westchester RiverWalk, a planned 51.5 mile continuous trail along the Hudson River shoreline from Yonkers to Cortlandt, under the Mario Cuomo Bridge. The transformative impact of ready access to public open space, trails and the natural environment came into sharp focus during the pandemic and Scenic Hudson’s leadership in such conservation efforts has undoubtedly shaped the future for residents and communities throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond.

Rick Redniss and Mack Carter were Selected for the 2021 Award

Richard Redniss is Principal Planner of Stamford-based engineering, surveying, and planning firm Redniss & Mead, Inc. Over the past four plus decades, Rick has championed the planning process to innovate solutions to the changing dynamics of land use in our region. His extensive body of work is respected by the public, nonprofit, and private sectors for its creativity and sensitivity to the natural and built environment as well as for the people who inhabit those spaces. Historic Preservation, permanent open space, affordable housing, senior living, parking management, recreational amenities, hospitality, medical, commercial, residential, heavy industrial, and other uses have all been enhanced by his efforts. His expertise in leveraging development and redevelopment forces, predominantly via hundreds of zoning regulation amendments, has helped create thousands of below market rate residences, saved dozens of historic buildings, preserved over 100 acres of open space, established public parklands and contributed to the quality of life in our cities and neighborhoods. He has played a role in large scale developments like Merritt Seven and Harbor Point to smaller scale achievements like supportive and special needs housing. In addition to the millions of square feet of commercial development and over 10,000 units of housing he has helped foster, Rick is most proud of enabling museums, nonprofit institutions, and Housing Authorities to be able to enhance and expand their missions.

Mack Carter has been the Executive Director of the White Plains Housing Authority since 2001. Under his leadership, White Plains Housing Authority completed the renovation of the first RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) project in New York State. Lakeview was the first site completed, and now is a PBRA (Project-Based Rental Assistance) project. The second site, Schuyler-DeKalb, was converted to a PBV (Project-Based Voucher) project. Both projects were completed with HFA financing, on budget and on time. White Plains Housing Authority has achieved national recognition for the revitalization and preservation of all of its buildings, for comprehensive services to its tenants, and for a major urban redevelopment program involving five phases of new construction. Brookfield Commons in downtown White Plains will provide new housing for all 450 existing tenant households in Winbrook Houses, resulting in the transformation of a traditional public housing project into a mixed-income, mixed-use model of integrated low-income and workforce housing with supportive services. The buildings will exceed New York State energy standards through a partnership with ConEd, providing tenants with open space. The first phase of Brookfield Commons, The Prelude, is occupied and the second, Overture, will be complete later this year. It involves a $64 million partnership between the Authority and Trinity Financial, a nationally prominent developer. This new phase will contain 129 units in a 147,229 square feet, nine-story building with space for tenant and community services. Social, recreational, medical, and educational services will be provided to the tenants of all five phases through a partnership with a dozen agencies including the Hospital, New York Medical College, the school district, library, Arts Westchester, and other local service agencies.

Before his tenure with the Housing Authority, Mr. Carter served four years in the Air Force, received advanced academic degrees in both community health and business, and was the CEO and President of the Westchester Medical Center.

Lynne Ward and Joe Cotter from National Resources were Selected for the 2018 Award

Under the leadership of Lynne Ward and Joseph Cotter, National ReSources is one of the most highly regarded development firms in the New York/Fairfield region.

National Resources is a specialist real estate development and investment firm that focuses on the redevelopment of corporate and industrial sites. NRE has been built on a solid foundation of acquisitions, leasing, and redevelopment but with the unique value-added dimension – Sustainability. NRE has redeveloped over $1 billion of projects with some of the world’s largest capital partners. Most significantly, NRE has been able to achieve these objectives while producing strong financial returns for investors. NRE is best known for its landmark Hudson River waterfront residences and its innovative i.parks.

John Nolan at PACE Land Use Law Center Selected for 2018 Award

John R. Nolon is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Pace Law School where he teaches property, land use, dispute resolution, and sustainable development law courses and is the Founder of and Counsel to the Law School’s Land Use Law Center.

He was an Adjunct Professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for 15 years beginning in 2001, where he developed a curriculum concentration of five land use law and policy courses. He is known nationally for his development of legal frameworks for local environmental law, sustainable development, and low carbon land use. Professor Nolon received a Fulbright Scholarship to study sustainable development law in Argentina in 1994-95. At Pace Law School, he has won several awards for outstanding scholarship and teaching. Pace University designated him a Distinguished Professors in 2015.

As Counsel to the Land Use Law Center, Professor Nolon provides technical assistance and training to local officials regarding the land use review and approval process and works with students to produce best practice reports on emerging issues in urban revitalization and environmental sustainability. He has received national awards for his work with municipal leaders from the American Planning Association and the International City Management Association. The New York Planning Federation awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Clayton H. Fowler and Kim Morque Selected for 2016 Collins Award

Under the leadership of Clayton H. Fowler and Kim Morque, Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, LLC ( Spinnaker) is one of the most highly regarded development firms in the New York/Fairfield region. As a second generation company, Spinnaker has been a key contributor to the enhancement of many of the major cities and municipalities in Connecticut, New York and Nationwide. Read the full story here.

Robert F. Weinberg Selected for 2010 Collins Award
Co-founder and President of Robert Martin Company, Mr. Robert Weinberg was honored in December as the 2010 Collins Award winner. He is widely regarded as a pioneer in multifamily residential, affordable housing, suburban office park and mixed-use urban renewal projects. With his long-time partner Martin Berger, he grew the firm to be, for several decades, Westchester’s largest diversified land developer and builder. In more recent years, Mr. Weinberg has actively involved the firm in urban renewal projects in Potchester, Yonkers, New Rochelle and White Plains. Read the full story here.

Chung Receives 2008 Collins Visionary Award
Do H. Chung has been chosen as the winner of ULI Westchester/Fairfield’s first annual Arthur Collins Sr. Visionary Award for Leadership in Land Use. Read the full story here.

The award honors the legacy of New York-area developer Arthur Collins, Sr., a longtime ULI member, who is regarded as one of America’s most innovative real estate developers during the last half of the 20th Century.