Students from the 5280 Planning Collective at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) won second place at the 2025 American Planning Association Student Planning & Design Competition . The team consisted of Oliver Oglesby (MLA/MUP ’26), Matthew Thibodeau (MUP ’26), Cameron Hull (MUP ’26), Christopher Cahill (MUP ’25), and Lindsay Crockett (MUP ’25).
The competition focuses on a significant development site or an area in the National Planning Conference host city, asking students to consider all the steps planners and designers need to take when developing plans and recommendations. Finalists present their proposals to a jury at a public session of the National Planning Conference.
The 2025 competition site was the Colfax & Federal Clover Leaf, a 46-acre parcel in Denver, CO, this year’s host city. The team’s project, “The Colfax Core,” reimagined the competition site as a new urban center that connects surrounding communities with walkable amenities, diverse housing, cultural spaces, and family necessities.