SUDBURY -- The McEwen School of Architecture is asking people to give them their thoughts on what Sudbury's downtown core should look like in 30 years.
Organizers say the 2050 Urban Design Ideas Competition is a chance to re-imagine ways the city can evolve.
"We decided that it would be a fun idea to create a competition where we 'open source' the idea of the downtown core to people from around the world and just get a flood of ideas and dream big about what the city could be," said David Fortin, a professor at the school.
Plans for the competition have been in the works for over a year now. Faculty say they want to hear ideas from members of the community.
"The idea of a city plan, or vision of a city, can't be one person’s vision," Fortin said. "If you're planning 30 years into the future, what you really try to do is engage people that they can have an input or say in the kind of city they want to live in."
More than 300 entries have been submitted, and school administrators say they've come from a cross-section of people.
"There will be things purposed that none of us have ever thought about in terms of the lakes, the resources and the ecology, and using the city and the wood and the mining history," said Terrance Galvin, founding director and professor at the school.
"When people are outside the community, as well as inside, you get a very different response."
Submissions close Aug. 28. Winners will announced this fall with prizes totalling $63,000 in three categories.
