The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, is a global nonprofit research and education organization with regional offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and London. ULI aims to help its members and their partners build more equitable, sustainable, healthy and resilient communities.
ULI was founded in 1936 and currently has more than 48,000 members. About 28 percent of ULI members are real estate developers, 10 percent are service providers such as architects and consultants, 10 percent are from the public sector, 13 percent represent sources of capital such as investors.
ULI focuses on best practices in real estate development, housing, transportation, and related topics. The Institute provides technical assistance in communities via advisory panels, hosts conferences, produces reports, collects and shares industry benchmarks and guidance, and offers learning opportunities and courses.
ULI currently has 52 District Councils or local chapters in the Americas, as well as 7 National councils in Europe and Asia. The Institute’s Product Councils are groups of senior industry leaders. District and Product Councils that facilitate learning and sharing.
The Institute is governed by a Global Board of Directors, made up of member volunteers. The board is currently headed by Global Chair Franz Colloredo-Mansfeld, chairman and CEO of Cabot Properties, appointed in July 2025 to succeed Diane Hoskins. The organization is led by Global CEO Angela Cain. Prior to Cain, the position was held by Ron Pressman, and by W. Edward Walter prior to that.
History
1936–1949
ULI was founded during the Great Depression on December 14, 1936 as the National Real Estate Foundation for Practical Research and Education, with the intention of becoming a research and education college in real estate and "urbiculture." In 1939 the organization changed its name to the Urban Land Institute, two years after establishing its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.
ULI held its first conference in 1941, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. A year later, ULI established itself as an advocacy organization with the publication of "Outline for a Legislative Program to Rebuild Our Cities." That same year, the institute relocated its headquarters to Washington, DC.
In 1944, ULI's first Product Council, the Community Builder's Council, was organized focusing on suburban building issues facing post-World War II American cities. The institute's Advisory Services program was established in 1947, conducting its first panel for the city of Louisville, Kentucky.
1950–1979 The 1950s marked the establishment of the J.C. Nichols Foundation (which later evolved into the ULI Foundation) as well as the Institute's first shopping center costs study.
ULI continued to move towards becoming a more research-focused institution during the 1960s, establishing its first research program in 1960. The Institute would conduct a number of multiyear comparative land use studies and begin spreading their influence abroad by holding its first international meeting for sustaining members in Mexico City in 1965. In 1965, ULI held its first international meeting for sustaining members in Mexico City. Two years later, in 1967, the Community Builder's Council hosted ULI's first European study tour.
In 1970, the Urban Land Research Foundation (later called the ULI Foundation) was created to "help meet the rising need for an expanding more accessible body of development information." In 1979, ULI established the ULI Awards for Excellence program.
1980–1999 ULI created its regional District Council program in 1983, starting with seven councils in various U.S. cities.
UrbanPlan, the Institute's second high school program, was created with the help of a grant award from the National Geographic Society Education Foundation. In 1992, the Institute created its first two European National Councils for the cities of London and Barcelona.
The ULI Senior Resident Fellows program was established in 1996. That same year, the first ULI Mayor's Forum was held with the intention of creating a venue for city officials and the private sector to meet and seek solutions to urban problems.
2000–present In 2000, the ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development was established and the number of ULI District Councils grew to 39, expanding to Europe, Asia, and South America as National Councils. A year later, in 2001, ULI opened its first European office in Brussels, Belgium. That same year, the first Young Leaders group was established by the ULI Houston District Council. A majority of the other District Councils have a Young Leaders group by 2005, and ULI opened its first Canadian District Council in Toronto, Ontario that same year.
The European office relocated to London and founded the Community Action Grant program in 2004. In 2007, the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing was created in addition to the opening of a ULI office in Hong Kong. By 2008, ULI membership would exceed 40,000. That same year, ULI created the ULI Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use along with the launch of the Urban Investment Network in Europe. In 2011, the National Building Museum announced ULI as the 2012 Honor Award recipient for its years of dedication to leadership in urban planning and developing sustainable communities.
In 2012, ULI absorbed the Greenprint Foundation (now known as ULI Greenprint), a global alliance of real estate owners and developers which uses benchmarking and knowledge sharing to help the industry cost-effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2014, ULI and the National League of Cities entered a partnership to jointly guide the direction and operations of the Rose Center for Public Leadership, helping expand its work and influence to a wider audience of city officials. The partnership ended in 2019.
In 2015, ULI established the Building Healthy Places program, which focuses on intersections between health, social and racial equity and the built environment.
Programs Since the middle of the 20th century, ULI has been hired by city governments and private land owners as consultants for tackling local real estate and development problems through the advisory services program. These multidisciplinary teams - consisting of members with expertise in architecture, urban planning, transportation consulting, finance, and market trends - have had many of their recommendations adopted or implemented.Buffalo News Staff. (August 29, 2012). Veterinary school chosen for Gates site. The Buffalo News. Retrieved September 7, 2012. The institute's local district councils, have provided events for government officials and private industry leaders to deliberate about future land use challenges and have also established an UrbanPlan classroom-based curriculum that been widely adopted by schools across the United States and Canada, and expanded globally., Kim. (February 2, 2012). Urban Plan makes community real for Roseville students. KARE11.com. Retrieved September 7, 2012. In addition, ULI has taken part in a number of partnerships in order to provide leadership and awareness in urban development practices, including one with the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Advisory services ULI’s first advisory services program was held in April 1947 in Louisville, Kentucky. It brings together experienced real estate and land use professionals to develop solutions for complex land use and real estate development projects, programs, and policies. The panels have helped sponsors find solutions on topics including community revitalization, workforce and affordable housing, resilient infrastructure, and equitable access to parks. Panels have also provided expert and objective advice in the wake of natural and man-made disasters such as hurricanes, flood, infrastructure failures and tornados and acts of terrorism.
ULI panels recommended redeveloping a four-mile stretch of downtown Los Angeles into a CleanTech Corridor and its advice on how to revitalize Denver’s 16th Street Mall. ULI's panels have also offered consultant work for post-catastrophic redevelopment, including the 2007 I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota and advised officials on how to rebuild Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.
There has been controversy over a few of the panel's recommendations, including its 2005 post-Hurricane Katrina advice for rebuilding New Orleans.
UrbanPlan UrbanPlan is a reality-based educational program originally created by the ULI San Francisco chapter in 2002 and now being delivered by District Councils in over 35 cities. The project based learning unit was developed in partnership with high school economics teachers, land use and real estate professionals, and the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics (FCREUE) at the University of California at Berkeley. The core of the curriculum involves a fictitious scenario where students respond to a city request for proposals (RFP) to redevelop a 11.75 acre community. Through taking on roles and acting as developer, students learn the major issues and tradeoffs in the urban planning and redevelopment process and how the desires of many stakeholders influence development decisions. Industry experts serve as volunteers and meet with the teams twice during the building process and then again as a mock City Council to select the winning proposal. Since its launch, over 82,000 high school and university students have participated in the UrbanPlan program. In 2014, the program was introduced in the United Kingdom through a partnership with the Investment Property Forum Educational Trust. It has further expanded globally since then to other countries in Europe and to Asia Pacific. In 2015, ULI expanded the program to also deliver UrbanPlan to public officials and community members.
ULI Learning In 1986, ULI held its first annual Real Estate School. The school offered current and aspiring real estate professionals opportunities to learn about real estate development from expert faculty in intensive, four-day courses.
In 2020, ULI and Project REAP (The Real Estate Associate Program) partnered to deliver the first ever virtual REAP Academy which aims to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the commercial real estate industry. The participants are involved in eight weeks of on-demand courses, live webinars, and industry panel discussions.
Centers and Initiatives
ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing The Terwilliger Center for Housing integrates ULI’s housing activities into a program of work with three objectives: to catalyze housing production, attainability, and equity; to advance best practices in housing development practice and related public policies through industry leading research; and to broaden and deepen support for housing solutions among critical stakeholders and the public. The Center is supported by a $10M gift from longtime member and former ULI chairman, J. Ronald Terwilliger.
The Terwilliger Center’s activities include developing research, publications, and other practical tools to enable housing production; engaging with members, housing industry leaders, and other critical stakeholders in housing development; a housing awards program recognizing industry best practices and innovations and effective public policies; and an annual housing conference. Research includes the annual Home Attainability Index, which is a resource for understanding the extent to which a housing market is providing a range of choices attainable to the regional workforce.