A park in Puerto Rico that improves access to safe drinking water, a residential project in Kentucky, and work on a Frederick Law Olmsted park in Massachusetts are among the 34 projects recognized by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in this year’s Professional Awards.

“The ASLA Professional Awards are the highest achievement in our profession,” said ASLA President Emily O’Mahoney in a statement. “This year’s winners are preeminent leaders and have set a high bar for standards of excellence. We congratulate the winners and their clients and thank them for their contributions to the health and well-being of their communities.”

The 2023 Professional Awards comprised of two juries one for General Design, Residential Design, & Urban Design and one for Analysis & Planning ASLA / IFLA Global Impact Award, Research & Communications. Chairing jury one was Kimberly Garza, ATLAS Lab; alongside Michel Borg, Page Think; Shuyi Chang, SWA; Chingwen Cheng, Arizona State University; Claude Cormier, Claude Cormier & Associates; Jamie Maslyn Larson, Tohono Chul; Garry Meus,  National Capital Commission; and Jennifer Nitzky, Studio HIP. The second jury was chaired by Maura Rockcastle of Ten x Ten and comprised of Camille Applewhite, Site Design Group; Stephanie Grigsby, Design Workshop; Mitchell Silver, McAdams; Michael Stanley, Dream Design International; Michael Todoran, The Landscape Architecture Podcast; and Yujia Wang, University of Nebraska.

This year, ASLA awarded for the first time the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Global Impact Award. This prize is given to a single project that “demonstrates excellence in addressing climate impacts through transformative action and scalable solutions, and adherence to ASLA’s and IFLA’s climate action commitments.” Monica Pallares of IFLA Americas joined the jury to select Philadelphia-based studio OLIN as the recipient of the Inaugural Global Impact Award. Olin was recognized for its work on the Caño Martín Peña Comprehensive Infrastructure Master Plan with Corporación del Proyecto ENLACE del Caño Martín Peña in San Juan, Puerto Rico. OLIN’s project was selected because of the project’s successful collaboration with residents of the Caño Martín Peña District. Upon implementation, OLIN’s design will improve access to safe drinking water, insulate the area from floods, unlock economic opportunities, and expand access to safe housing and open space.

Among the other recognized firms was Studio-MLA for its Vista Hermosa Natural Park in Los Angeles in collaboration with Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and Los Angeles Unified School District, which received the The Landmark Award. Located on a former oil field, Studio-MLA’s project “provides residents of a dense, primarily working-class Latinx neighborhood with ‘a window to the Mountains,’ opportunities for recreation, access to nature, and quiet reprieve” according to ASLA.

In the Communications Category, four groups took home Honors Awards: The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Ron Henderson / LIRIO Landscape Architecture, OLIN, and Martin Rickles Studio.

An Award of Excellence in the Analysis and Planning Category was given to Reed Hilderbrand with Agency Landscape and Planning and MASS Design for their work in Boston’s Franklin Park, which connects to Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood. The designers worked with Boston’s Parks and Recreation Department.

For excellence in urban design, Coen+Partners was recognized for their project in Rochester, Minnesota: Heart of the City: Art and Equity in Process and Place. Then in the residential category, Gresham Smith was awarded an honors for their project in Lexington, Kentucky: The Rain Gardens at 900 Block.

“These award-winning projects showcase how landscape architecture transforms the daily experiences of local communities,” stated ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. “Cutting-edge design solutions help address increasing climate impacts, capture more carbon, and contribute to the health and well-being of neighborhoods. Congratulations to the winners—thank you for your leadership.”

An in-person ceremony to honor the award winners will take placing during ASLA’s 2023 Conference on Landscape Architecture in Minneapolis between October 27–30.

The full list of winning projects is reproduced below.

General Design

Honor Award
Qianhai’s Guiwan Park
New York
James Corner Field Operations

Honor Award
Grand Junction Park and Plaza
Philadelphia
David Rubin Land Collective

Honor Award
Hood Bike Park: Pollution Purging Plants
Charleston, Massachusetts
Offshoots

Honor Award
Remaking a 1970’s Downtown Park into a New Public Realm
Houston
OJB Landscape Architecture

Honor Award
Peavey Plaza: Preserving History, Expanding Access
Minneapolis
Coen+Partners

Honor Award
The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office
Chicago
Hoerr Schaudt

Honor Award
University of Arizona Environment + Natural Resource II
Phoenix, Arizona
Coldwell Shelor Landscape Architecture

Honor Award
Cloud Song: SCC Business School + Indigenous Cultural Center
Phoenix
Colwell Shelor Landscape Architecture

Honor Award
The University of Texas at El Paso Transformation
Austin
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects

Urban Design

Award of Excellence
Heart of the City: Art and Equity in Process and Place
Minneapolis
Coen+Partners

Honor Award
St Pete Pier, Revitalization of Waterfront and Historic Pier Site
New York
Ken Smith Workshop

Honor Award
Town Branch Commons: An Urban Transformation in Lexington, Kentucky
New York, New York
SCAPE and Gresham Smith

Honor Award
PopCourts! – A Small Plaza That Turned into a Movement
Chicago
The Lamar Johnson Collaborative

Residential Design

Award of Excellence
The Rain Gardens at 900 Block
Nashville
Gresham Smith

Honor Award
Andesite Ridge
Aspen, Colorado
Design Workshop, Inc.

Honor Award
Dry Garden Poetry
San Francisco
Arterra Landscape Architects

Honor Award
Collected Works, Restored Land: Northeast Ohio Residence
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Reed Hilderbrand LLC Landscape Architecture

Honor Award
Black Fox Ranch: Extending the Legacy of the West to a New Generation
Aspen, Colorado
Design Workshop, Inc.

Honor Award
Sister Lillian Murphy Community
San Francisco
GLS Landscape | Architecture

Analysis & Planning

Award of Excellence
Re-investing in a Legacy Landscape: The Franklin Park Action Plan
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Reed Hilderbrand LLC Landscape Architecture,
Agency Landscape, Planning and MASS Design

Honor Award
The New Orleans Reforestation Plan: Equity in the Urban Forest
New Orleans, Louisiana
Spackman Mossop Michaels

Honor Award
Reimagine Middle Branch Plan
New York
James Corner Field Operations

Honor Award
Iona Beach / xwəyeyət Regional Park and WWTP
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
space2place design

Honor Award
Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
SmithGroup

Honor Award
The Chattahoochee RiverLands
Metro Atlanta Region, Georgia
SCAPE

Honor Award
Nature, Culture + Justice: The Greenwood Park Master Plan
Watertown, Massachusetts
Sasaki

Honor Award
Nicks Creek Longleaf Reserve Conservation & Management Plan
Raleigh, North Carolina
North Carolina State University Coastal Dynamics Design Lab

Communications

Honor Award
Sakura Orihon
Newport, Rhode Island
Ron Henderson / LIRIO Landscape Architecture

Honor Award
The Historic Bruce Street School: A Community-Centered Design Approach
Atlanta
Martin Rickles Studio

Honor Award
Landslide: Race and Space
Washington, D.C.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Honor Award
Los Angeles River Master Plan Update
Philadelphia
OLIN

Research

Honor Award
The Cobble Bell: Research through Geology-Inspired Coastal Management
Charlottesville, Virginia
Proof Projects