One of the housing industry’s most respected practitioners of green, affordable and mixed income community development, Jonathan F.P. Rose has been named the 2021 recipient of the ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development, the most prestigious and respected honor in the land use and development community.
The $100,000 ULI Prize, in its 22nd year, recognizes an individual who has made a distinguished contribution to community building globally, who has established visionary standards of excellence in the land use and development field, and whose commitment to creating the highest-quality built environment has led to the betterment of society.
Rose, a long-time ULI Trustee, is founder and president of New York-based Jonathan Rose Companies LLC (JRCo), a national mission-driven real estate development, planning and investment firm. Rose Companies has long been a leader in green building practices, and enhancing the social, health and educational opportunities for residents through its Communities of Opportunity programming.
As far back as the early 1980s when much of the industry was prioritizing suburban development, Rose proposed mixed-use, mixed-income, green transit-oriented urban development. His 2017 book, The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life, has informed urban planning thinking from Sao Paolo to Bhutan, where he is helping to guide the nation’s regional and urban planning.
“I am deeply honored to have been selected to join the previous distinguished laureates who have received this prize,” Rose said. “The Urban Land Institute has long been the leading global force for best practices in real estate and community development. The planning and development of the right kind of communities are essential if we are to have a fair and just – and therefore, sustainable – society. Every element of opportunity, such as access to great schools, healthcare, good work and safety, is place-based. I hope that this award will help shed a light on the ways that we can build and rebuild communities of opportunity that are affordable, safe, green and socially just.”
Since founding JRCo in 1989, Rose has developed, acquired and redeveloped or preserved more than 100 affordable and mixed-income, multi-use developments throughout the United States, often in partnership with nonprofit organizations and housing agencies. He is a long-time advocate for transit-oriented, mixed-income communities as a means of improving the health of both families and the environment. Rose was among the first real estate developers to make green building a priority in the development of affordable housing.
Other 2021 ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development jury members included Maurice Cox, commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), City of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Candace Damon, vice chairman, HR&A Advisors, Brooklyn, New York; Chris Frampton, chief executive officer, East West Partners, Denver, Colorado; and former ULI Global Chair Randy Rowe, chairman, Green Courte Partners, Chicago, Illinois.
