A UDP Story

Once upon a time there were 2 civil engineers working long days and nights for a large land development firm. Neither of them was satisfied with the direction of their careers and wanted to make an impact within their community. After years of talking about starting their own firm and what they wanted it to look like, they signed a lease and began their 20-year journey.

They called themselves “Urban Design Partners” or “UDP” for short. Their main location was originally in old office park in a neighborhood known as Plaza Midwood located outside Uptown Charlotte when they started this journey back in March 2005. UDP started by helping developers, homebuilders, and architects of all shapes and sizes with projects far and near. Initially they provided civil engineering and landscape architecture services but soon realized they could offer more so adding urban design and planning services was the natural progression. Their slogan? To turn vision into reality.

Brian Smith was one of these brave civil engineers that started this journey and kept progressing through the ups and downs of the industry. 2008, the recession, came and tried to stop UDP from gaining momentum but not even that could slow Brian down. Throughout his journey people have come and gone but all have helped grow UDP in various ways.

The UDP team was destined to grow into something great, but Brian knew he didn’t want to do it alone, so he looked to have partners. Paul Pennell was the next to join Brian as a partner. Paul brought his diverse background, experience and visionary mindset to UDP. With his help, UDP was able to help more people on the rezoning and entitlement side of land development. Brian and Paul grew the UDP name with innovators and collaborators who joined them on their journey.

UDP was able to help with some extremely notable projects all over Charlotte. Just to name a few; helped create the shelter standard with Freedom Park Renovations; the lead engineer and landscape architect for a Charlotte hot spot that is Optimist Hall; Charlotte’s first pocket neighborhood, Anker Haus. The project portfolio of UDP is something truly unique and gives them a range of experience to be a true partner for a project team.

Brian and Paul led the group for years and had goals of reaching more people in the Triangle area but proved itself to be more difficult than initially thought. They searched high and low for the right person to join them and spearhead efforts in the Triangle.

Mid-2019 is when they met Brian Richards (also called Richards or BRich) and recruited him to join their journey. Richards joined ready to spread the word and hopefully grow a strong following in the Triangle area. That is until the pandemic of COVID-19 put everyone one standby.

The pandemic created challenges for UDP but made them get creative on providing solutions. UDP learned how to adapt to the ever-changing professional environment and grew it’s following to become even stronger. They even got a little mascot known as “The Green Man” and has been quite the icon for UDP. His contribution to the culture has helped word spread about what they are doing and helped recruit others to join.

UDP continued to grow and eventually had to transition into new spaces to allow for even more growth. At the end of 2020, Brian and Paul said goodbye to Plaza Midwood and hello to Wesley Heights, a new office with more space and new scenery. While they continued to grow, there was a need to bring in another more experience person to help lead.

Richards worked to grow UDP within the Triangle and there was a need to bring another engineer in to help lead. He found Salman Moazzam and knew he would be perfect for the job. Salman brought a depth of knowledge and experience from working all around the Triangle area and became a big asset in UDP’s growth. Shortly after him joining, Richards and Salman took UDP from a small co-working space into their very own office to grow.

Brian, Paul, Richards, and Salman have all worked to create a culture of collaboration and grow the name bigger and better than it was yesterday. Together they make up the leadership of UDP. They guide and mentor the others throughout different points in their career while together they learn.

Today, there is a diverse team who believe in UDP’s core focus, to transform communities through collaborative design. Their project portfolio continues to grow and expand with community empowering projects like City Gateway, LaRue Townhomes, and Collins Ridge in the Triangle; Anker Haus, Lintmen’s, and Baucom Mixed-Use in Charlotte. Together UDP is unstoppable and prepared to take on any challenge a site may bring.

What’s next? Nobody truly knows, but what we do know is this. UDP is destined for big things and an even brighter future.