ASLA Professional and Student Awards in Urban Design will recognize projects that activate networks of spaces that mediate between social equity, economic viability, infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and beautiful place-making in the public and private realm.
The Professional and Student Awards bestowed by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) are the oldest and most prestigious honors in the profession. This year, ASLA is proud to announce the addition of a new award category for both professionals and students – Urban Design.
ASLA 2019 Professional General Design Honor Award. Sundance Square Plaza, Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd. / Photo Credit: Sundance Square
“The world around us is shifting to a more urban population and by the year 2050 it is anticipated that 68% of the world’s population will live in cities. Well-crafted and beautifully designed projects have the ability to transform communities, drive economic development, impact large numbers of people, and completely change one’s perception of place,” said Doug Hoerr, FASLA, CEO and Principal at Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, who helped lead the effort to create this new category as part of the ASLA Honors & Awards Advisory Committee.
For both the ASLA Professional and ASLA Student awards programs, juries comprised of leading landscape architects select a number of Honor Awards in Urban Design, and may select one Award of Excellence. These new awards are an opportunity to highlight the best urban design projects around the globe.
ASLA 2018 Student Residential Design Award of Excellence. Baseco: A New Housing Paradigm, Harvard University Graduate School of Design. / Photo Credit: Julio F. Torres Santana, Student ASLA
“Urban Design as a separate award category in the ASLA’s Honors and Awards Program now gives special recognition to the profession’s achievements in those respects,” said Thomas Schurch, ASLA, who helped lead the effort to create this new category as Co-Chair of the ASLA Urban Design Professional Practice Network. “Within the highly competitive and greater design community that includes our peer professions, landscape architecture can now better showcase and promote the vast array of our capabilities in shaping a rapidly changing urban realm.”
Submissions for the new Urban Design category will be accepted once the Call for Entries opens later this fall.
To read more about the origins of this new category, see our article in LAND.
Background on the ASLA Awards Programs
Each year, the ASLA Professional Awards honor the best in landscape architecture from around the globe. Winners of these prestigious awards are chosen by a jury that represents the breadth of the profession, including private, public, institutional, and academic practice, and exemplify diversity in professional experience, geography, gender, and ethnicity. Submissions are judged blind.
Professional Awards are presented in seven categories: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design, Analysis & Planning, Communications, Research, and the Landmark Award. In each of the first six categories, the Jury may select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards. It is not guaranteed that an Award of Excellence will be selected each year, as it is up to the jury’s discretion. Only one Landmark Award is presented each year.
Student Awards are presented in eight categories: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design, Analysis & Planning, Research, Communications, Student Collaboration and Student Community Service. Like the Professional Awards, the jury may select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards. It is not guaranteed that an Award of Excellence will be selected each year, as it is up to the jury’s discretion.
Editor’s Note
Read more ASLA Announces 2018 Professional Awards Winners
