'Reconnecting communities to landscapes': Meet the winners of the 2022 ASLA Professional Awards

A total of 28 projects from across the country have been honored as part of this year’s American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Professional Awards program.

In an announcement made on October 3, the organization named its Excellence and Honor Awards winner across seven categories, including The Landmark Award, which was given to Hargreaves Jones for their 2001 transformation of Crissy Field for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in San Francisco.

"Many of this year’s winning projects were focused on reconnecting communities to landscapes, illustrating the important role landscape architects play in creating places for communities to live, work, and play," ASLA President Eugenia Martin said in a statement. "We congratulate this year’s winners for their extraordinary contributions to their communities and the profession."

GENERAL DESIGN AWARDS

Award of Excellence - Palm Springs Downtown Park by RIOS (Palm Springs, CA)

Jury citation: "Sited on the grounds of the historic sanitorium resort, the Desert Inn, the design draws on its legacy as a destination for health, nature, and pleasure seekers. The park comprises three overlapping spaces: the Palm Grove, with over 130 Washingtonia filifera, California’s only native palm; the Outcrop, on the park’s northern edge designed as an immersive park experience that relates to the surrounding mountains; and the Theater. Each offers distinct programmatic capacities and reveals facets of the region’s geology, vegetation, and rich history. The park’s dramatic centerpiece is a powerful waterfall and an interactive water feature of jets and fog emitters, which the jury called remarkable!"

Honor Awards

• 10,000 SUNS: Highway to Park Project by DESIGN UNDER SKY (Providence, RI)
• A Community's Embrace Responding to Tragedy: The January 8th Memorial and the El Presidio Park Vision Plan by Chee Salette of Tina Chee Landscape Studio (Tuscon, AZ)
• Domino Park by James Corner Field Operations (Brooklyn, NY)
• From Brownfield to Green Anchor in the Assembly Square District by OBJ (Somerville, MA)
• Riverfront Spokane by Berger Partnership (Spokane, WA)
• West Pond: Living Shoreline by Dirtworks Landscape Architecture (Brooklyn and Queens, NY)

RESIDENTIAL DESIGN AWARD

Award of Excellence - Edwin M. Lee Apartments by GLS Landscape|Architecture (San Francisco, CA)

Jury citation: "Dramatic and effective integration of architecture and landscape architecture with circulation. Inclusive design quality rarely observed in affordable housing for veterans and the homeless."

Honor Awards

• Coast Ridge Residence by Scott Lewis Landscape Architecture (Portola Valley, CA)
• Crest Apartments, A Restorative Parallel for Supportive Housing by Tina Chee Landscape Studio and SWA Group (Van Nuys, California)
• Quarry House by Design Workshop, Inc. (Park City, UT)
• Refugio by Ground Studio (Santa Cruz, CA)

URBAN DESIGN AWARD

Award of Excellence - HOPE SF: Rebuild Potrero by GLS Landscape|Architecture (San Francisco, CA)

Jury citation: "The 38-acre neighborhood will have a unique open space network of terraces, sloping parks, community services, and streets linked together by landscaped staircases carved from the south-facing slopes of Potrero Hill. Also being added are 1000 units of market rate and affordable homes, daycare, pre-school, community center, recreational facilities, neighborhood-serving retail, and open space amenities. The jury praised the urban design as a “masterful integration of affordable housing into intense topography that defines new hierarchies of public space."

Honor Awards

• Denny Regrade Campus by Site Workshop (Seattle, WA)
• Midtown Park by Design Workshop, Inc. (Houston, TX)
• Shirley Chisholm State Park by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (Brooklyn, NY)

ANALYSIS AND PLANNING AWARD

Honor Awards

• Accelerating Rural Recovery and Resilience: The Pollocksville Community Floodprint by North Carolina State University Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (Pollocksville, NC)
• Connecting People and Landscape: Integrating Cultural Landscapes, Climate Resiliency, and Growth Management in the Low Country by Design Workshop, Inc. (Beaufort County, SC)
• Moakley Park Resilience Plan by Stoss Landscape Urbanism (Boston, MA)
• Preparing the Ground: Restorative Justice on Portland's Interstate 5 by ZGF Architects (Portland, OR)
• Reimage Nature and Inclusion for Salt Lake City by Design Workshop, Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT)

RESEARCH AWARD

Honor Awards

• Alabama Meadows by Emma Knox and David Hill (Auburn, AL)
• Curbing Sediment: A Proof of Concept by Halina Steiner and Ryan Winston (Columbus, OH)
• Soilless Soils: Investigation of Recycled Color-Mixed Glass in Engineered Soils by OLIN (Philadelphia, PA)

COMMUNICATIONS AWARD

Honor Awards

• Miridae Mobile Nursery: Growing a Native Plant Community by Miridae (Sacramento, CA)
• Open Space Master Plan, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) by Grain Collective Landscape Architecture & Urban Design PLLC (New York, NY)
• Talk Tree to Me: Facilitating a Complex Conversation Around Trees in Detroit by Spackman Mossop Michaels (Detroit, MI)

THE LANDMARK AWARD

Award Recipient - Crissy Field: An Enduring Transformation by Hargreaves Jones (San Francisco, CA)

Jury citation: "While reintroducing and amplifying the natural and cultural features of the site, the project restored 40 acres of habitat consisting of 22 acres of vegetated dune and dune swale habitat and 18 acres of tidal marsh, allowing fresh and salt water to merge. A 1.5-mile promenade alongside an extensive protected coastal dune habitat unifies the site. And the Crissy Field Center supports a variety of education and outreach programs for youth. The jury lauded it as a culturally and ecologically effective icon. A city-defining landscape amenity."

Select project details from this year’s recipients will be archived in the Library of Congress, a first for the awards program. A special in-person awards gala will be held as part of the ASLA’s Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Francisco between November 11 – 14, 2022. Ticketing information for the event can be found here.

Learn more about this year's ASLA 2022 Professional Award winners and honorees here.