You can find photos and videos from the event HERE.

HOUSTON – February 11, 2025 – Houston’s most compelling and innovative real estate projects were recognized by the Houston District Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) at the 18th annual Development of Distinction Awards presented by Wilson, Cribbs + Goren.  

Over 200 guests gathered for ULI Houston’s centerpiece awards program at Armadillo Palace, which recognizes developments and open spaces that exemplify best practices in design, construction, economic viability, healthy places, marketing, and management. The program is modeled after the national Urban Land Institute Global Awards for Excellence. 

In the Large-Scale For-Profit Category*, the 2025 award went to Norton Rose Fulbright Tower. Norton Rose Fulbright Tower is a 28-story, 387,700-square-foot Class A office building overlooking one of downtown Houston’s most celebrated and iconic parks, Discovery Green. Part of a three-block master plan the tower features amenities made for Texas weather including multiple terraces that pull the park up into the building. With a unique side-core design, expansive floor plate and LEED Platinum mechanical system, the Norton Rose Fulbright Tower has set a new standard for Houston architecture and office life. 

In the Small-Scale Non-Profit Category** the 2025 award went to Dr. Shannon Walker Neighborhood Library. The 23,260 SF next-generation library is a community hub envisioned as a space for the modern community. What was once a forgotten post office site, the library is a vibrant art-filled public gathering space featuring a café, TECHLink with, music, video and podcast recording spaces, flexible meeting areas, private study rooms and a variety of seating arrangements. The layout encourages interaction with nature. Expansive glazing and cavernous walkways allow the patron to engage the building’s internal activities before reaching the entrances. The site cuts deep into the library, allowing patrons multiple spaces in both function and scale to experience nature. Color inhabits these spaces, and sunlight takes a more apparent possession of the building.

In the Large-Scale Non-Profit Category* the 2025 award went to Cynthia Ann Parker Elementary School. Parker Elementary Schools’s design offers building and site features that incorporate the school’s focus on music and how that is experienced within the community. This new school replaced an existing 50-year-old building while creating a new landmark that provides balance between new and old within the established neighborhood. The 21st-century school design activates hallways to become teaching spaces. Teaching occurs not just within the classrooms and special rooms, but rather throughout the school. The school was placed next to the city park, a large green space to the east for HISD’s new Spark Park, sports field, basketball courts, playgrounds, and walking track to the community. This site planning completed the design by providing a “school within a park.” 

In the Open Space Category, the 2025 award went to Vogel Creek Greenway. The Vogel Creek Greenway is a 1-mile-long greenspace project that integrates flood mitigation, recreational, and community advocacy into a single, cohesive effort. Unlike many projects that address these elements separately, Vogel Creek Greenway embraces a comprehensive, multi-purpose green infrastructure approach to urban development. This public-private partnership transformed a flood-prone former golf course into a vibrant community asset, not only enhancing public space but also strengthening the area’s resilience to flooding. Houston Parks Board engaged with the local community to ensure that residents’ voices and needs shaped the design. This inclusive approach empowered residents to become active stakeholders in revitalizing their neighborhood and fostering a deeper connection to the space and instilling a strong sense of community pride. 

In the Historical Redevelopment Category, the 2025 award went to The Coffee House at West End. Located a block south of the popular Washington Avenue, The Coffee House at West End was created primarily to serve the community and secondarily to be enjoyed by the church. Now one of the biggest coffee shops in Houston, the bustling spot meets a need in the Washington corridor area, where coffee shop options are lacking. The modern, two-story coffee shop boasts an industrial aesthetic featuring materials from the original 1930s building. The former three-story space was converted into two stories, creating a mezzanine area that can function as event space. A variety of seating options can be found throughout the warm shop, and exposed brick serves as a nod to the original building. 

This year our judges selected one finalist to receive what has been named the Sustainable Adaptive Reuse award. As ULI Houston does every year, judges were given leeway to award finalists as they deemed appropriate. The judges felt Alexandria Center® for Advanced Technologies at the Woodlands thoughtfully used the existing structure to create a campus that brought the outdoors in, created unique collaboration spaces and provides an inviting environment for employees to work. In unanimous agreement, they chose to award a trophy to recognize the work of its development team.  

The Alexandria Center® for Advanced Technologies at The Woodlands is a one-of-a-kind, amenity-rich multi-tenant campus in the heart of the Greater Houston life science cluster. The campus is home to the first purpose-built, cost-effective Class A laboratory infrastructure with move-in-ready lab suites and shared amenity spaces, including indoor and outdoor fitness and wellness spaces and conference and event spaces. Anchored by Nurix Therapeutics, a leader in targeted protein modulation to treat cancer and other challenging diseases, the space is designed to drive innovation and collaboration. 

This year, with record breaking voting, Dr. Shannon Walker Neighborhood Library won the Development of Distinction People’s Choice award receiving the most votes for the favorite finalist in a public vote. 

Finalists were selected by a nomination panel of Houston real estate leaders that included: Matthew Camp, RE:VIVE Development; Lindsay Canning, Winstead; Carl Clark, House & Robertson Architects; Kate Langston, Cadence Bank; Elizabeth ‘Violet’ Mak, PEA Group and Andrew Paderanga, BGE. 

A jury of national real estate experts evaluated all finalists’ projects in October 2024, to select the 2025 Development of Distinction Awards winners. Our jury this year was:  

• Adrienne Bain, Managing Director, Capital Markets, JPI – based in Charlotte, NC
• Heather Personne, Managing Principal, Evolve Ventures – Phoenix, AZ
• Rico Quirindongo, Director of Planning & Community Development, City of Seattle – Seattle, WA 

The following 2025 category finalists were also recognized during the awards: 

Large-Scale For Profit
The Allen – DC Partners 

Small-Scale Non-Profit
Glenwood Cemetery Visitor Center – Glenwood Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation
Trees for Houston Kinder Campus – Trees for Houston 

Large-Scale Non-Profit
Evelyn Rubenstein JCC of Houston – Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston 

Open Space
Trailhead Ridge Park – Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. 

Since 2008, over 140 projects and public spaces have been recognized as Development of Distinction honorable mentions, finalists and winners. See a full list. 

* Over 100,000 sq ft
** 100,000 sq ft or less