"It was extremely difficult selecting three finalists from the extraordinarily gifted group of seven architectural teams selected in the last round," said Dennis Pavlich, UBC Vice-President of External and Legal Affairs. "The three finalists have inspiring and differing architectural perspectives. Besides demonstrating design excellence, each showed a strong implementation capability, and a strategy that impressed and excited the Shortlist Committee.

"The university community now awaits each of these talented, internationally renowned teams to prepare their visions to create a superb boulevard that fosters community in a distinctive setting and in a sustainable way."

The vision for University Boulevard is to create a distinctive, architecturally rich entry and social heart for the campus that includes a new University Square, a new greenway, new university related shops and services, university housing, and all the open spaces and associated pedestrian connections. The total competition site area is approximately 7.2 hectares and the total gross building area over the five project sites is 38,550 square metres. The estimated budget for the completion of the project is $100 million CDN.

"With this competition we are creating a higher standard for design at UBC that endeavours to move the university away from its historical piece meal approach," said Linda Moore, Associate Director External Affairs, University Town.

"We are proud to be providing a leadership role in urban, landscape and architectural design that will enhance the university's reputation as one of the finest environments of higher learning in Canada, and set a new standard regionally to which best practices in architecture and design can and should be inspired. In addition, the competition provides an important vehicle for discourse on the built environment -- be it at a university or elsewhere."

Beginning April 1, 2005, the designs prepared by the three finalists will be exhibited in UBC's Helen and Morris Belkin Art Gallery for public viewing. During this exhibition, UBC students, faculty, staff, and alumni will be invited to comment on the designs by way of a campus-wide poll. The results of the poll will be given to a jury made up of internationally recognised architects and UBC representatives for consideration in selecting the winning submission. The winning design will be announced in May 2005, on ratification by the UBC Board of Governors.

The University Boulevard Architectural Competition is the first architectural competition in Vancouver since 1991 when the Vancouver Public Library held a national design competition, which was won by Moshe Safdie and Downs Archambault & Partners.

The University of British Columbia is a leading university in Canada, one of the world's finest academic and research institutions, and is home to 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. UBC ranks consistently among the top 50 of the world's best universities.