From left to right: Stephanie Pankiewicz – ULI Jury Committee, Tom Balsley – Design Principal – swa/Balsley, Rob Basch – President Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, Ebony Young – Deputy Queens Borough President, Frank Ottomanelli – Owner, Frank Ottomanelli’s By The Water, Len Greco – Senior Vice President EDC, Mark Focht – Deputy Commissioner NYC Parks, Kevin Parris – Director NYC Housing, Preservation and Development. Photo courtesy of HPPC.
June 27, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
Hunters Point South Park has been selected as one of ten winners of the prestigious 2025 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Americas Awards for Excellence, a recognition honoring outstanding development efforts across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors throughout the Americas.
Located on the Long Island City waterfront, the park was among 94 projects submitted from across North and South America. A 15-member jury—comprising experts in development, finance, planning, urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture—first selected 18 finalists before naming ten winning projects.
Launched in 1979, the ULI Americas Awards for Excellence recognize achievements in design, planning, and marketplace acceptance. Eligible projects must be substantially complete, financially viable, and in stable operation within the ULI Americas region.
Hunters Point South Park was one of three New York-based winners, joining Manhattan’s Pearl House apartment development and Trinity Commons. Other honorees include projects in Dayton, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; Memphis, Tennessee; Santiago, Chile; and Toronto, Canada.
HPPC Via NYC Parks
Tom Balsley, principal designer and landscape architect for Hunters Point South Park, welcomed the recognition but emphasized that the park’s impact on the community outweighs any award.
“As the designer, these awards are important, but nothing satisfies me more than to visit the park to see how it has touched so many lives,” Balsley said in a statement.
Balsley noted the park’s origins in a 1993 Vision Plan for Queens West and its more recent inclusion in a 2023 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition.
“What began as our Vision Plan for Queens West in 1993 led to global design awards for Gantry Plaza State Park and now MoMA and the ULI Americas Award for Excellence for Hunters Point South Park,” he said. “A few weeks ago, I was joined by (HPPC President) Rob Basch and our local officials to present the park, its stories, and community impacts in person to the impressed ULI jurors.”
Rob Basch said the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy (HPPC) was honored to receive the award and highlighted the importance of community engagement in the ULI jury’s evaluation criteria.
“We are honored that ULI has recognized Hunters Point South Park. Our park is hugely important to our community,” Basch said in a statement. “It is a space where communities can come together, enjoy celebrations and cultural activities and also have space for relaxation. Community engagement is one of the important missions used to evaluate this award and Hunters Point South Park certainly meets this goal.”
HPPC Executive Director Jessica Sechrist added that the conservancy is proud to support a space that balances community needs with resilient design.
“Our community knows how important Hunters Point South Park is to the neighborhood, so we’re honored to see it recognized at this level,” Sechrist said. “We’re extremely proud to support a space that can serve as a model for resilient waterfront design while also serving the needs of a rapidly growing neighborhood.”
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