The American Society of Landscape
Architects (ASLA) has announced the recipients of its 2009 honors, the highest
awards the Society presents each year. Selected by ASLA’s Board of Trustees, the
medals, the Community Service Award, and the Landscape Architecture Firm Award
will be presented during the ASLA Annual Meeting in Chicago, 18-21 September 2009.
Joseph E. Brown, winner of the ASLA Medal
Source: ASLA
The ASLA Medal: Joseph E. Brown, FASLA
Joseph E. Brown, FASLA, of EDAW will receive the ASLA Medal – the highest honor
ASLA may bestow upon a landscape architect – in recognition for a 35-year career
of excellence. Brown joined EDAW in 1972, took the reins in 1992, and molded the
firm into an international force, 1,800 people strong, where principles and
ideas trump directive and mandate. A mentor to a generation of EDAW employees,
Brown also has taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of
Virginia, and George Washington University and is author and subject of numerous
articles. Despite his many leadership roles, Brown remains a designer’s designer
and a practicing landscape architect whose notable works include the Signers’
Memorial in Washington, D.C.; redevelopment of Denver’s Stapleton Airport; Tokyo
Midtown; and, currently, the public domain and streetscape design for the former
World Trade Center site in New York.
Richard W. Shaw, winner of the Design Medal
Source: ASLA
The Design Medal: Richard W. Shaw, FASLA
Richard W. Shaw, FASLA, partner in the Aspen, Colo., office of Design Workshop
Inc., will receive the ASLA Design Medal for his consistent excellence across a
wide variety of project types. His projects – ranging from private houses to
urban master plans – have earned multiple design awards. He has received the
Urban Land Institute’s prestigious Award of Excellence twice, once for urban
revitalization plans in Aspen and once for Blackcomb Resort in British Columbia.
An active torchbearer of the profession, he has served both the national and
Colorado chapter of ASLA, Landscape Architecture Foundation, advisory councils
at Utah State University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the
Aspen Institute.
The Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal: Dennis Day, FASLA
Dennis Day, FASLA, professor of landscape architecture at Kansas State
University, will receive the Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal for his sustained
and significant contributions to landscape architecture education. Day taught
landscape architecture construction for more than 40 years with an unequaled
command of the subject and unfailing sense of purpose, insight and integrity.
Thousands of students have been the benefactors of his simple and effective
teaching techniques built on self-discovery and self-realization and find
themselves owning a great technical advantage when they enter the workplace.
When he retired at the end of the 2008 school year, Day stepped up his applied
research in stormwater issues. Through these efforts, he keeps in contact with
his students by involving them in his work and providing real-world experience.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, winner of the LeGasse Medal
Source: ASLA
The LeGasse Medal: Mayor Richard M. Daley, Honorary ASLA
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Honorary ASLA, will receive the Alfred B.
LeGasse Medal for his leadership in management and conservancy of natural
resources and public lands. With the well-earned reputation as America’s “greenest
mayor,” Daley’s 20-year-long crusade to improve the urban environment of Chicago
has launched dozens of leading initiatives, from “Green Homes for Chicago” to
the “City of Chicago Energy Plan” to the recent “Adding Green to Design” program.
By working to strengthen the environmental policies across Chicago’s government
agencies, and by fostering public–private partnerships, Daley has created a
broad-based coalition to take on the city’s environmental challenges and
innovations. Integral design of landscape and building has become the norm in
all departments, with green roofs, green walls and vertical gardens playing
prominently in the mayor’s vision for a more humane and ecosensitive public
architecture in the 21st century.
The Medal of Excellence: The City Park District and City of Chicago
The City Park District and City of Chicago jointly will receive the Medal of
Excellence for their significant contributions to landscape architecture policy,
research, education, project planning, and design. Since the election of Mayor
Richard M. Daley in 1989, the Park District and the city have collaborated on
scores of notable efforts, including the City Space Plan, addressing the need
for additional open space; the Campus Park Program, which has transformed
expansive areas of hardscape around more than 100 public schools into green
spaces; the much loved and critically acclaimed Millennium Park; as well as
shoreline projects and historic preservation works. By combining their separate
strengths and resources, the two agencies have achieved results that allow
Chicago to live up to its official motto: “Urbs in Horto” or “City in a Garden.”
The Olmsted Medal: The Center for Planning Excellence
The Center for Planning Excellence in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will receive the
Olmsted Medal for environmental leadership, vision, and stewardship. Founded in
1998, the nonprofit “CPEX” serves as a resource for residents, professionals,
and elected officials on best practices for planning and urban design. Under the
direction of Elizabeth “Boo” Thomas, ASLA, the center has served as one of the
most influential organizations to address the recovery needs of
hurricane-devastated areas of Louisiana. An outgrowth of Plan Baton Rouge, the
Center for Planning Excellence officially came into being shortly after
Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. CPEX led the statewide Louisiana Speaks
recovery planning process, the largest regional planning effort and public
participation process ever undertaken in the United States, and continues to
lead comprehensive planning efforts throughout the state.
The Landscape Architecture Firm Award: EDAW | AECOM
EDAW | AECOM will receive the Landscape Architecture Firm Award. Founded in 1939
by Garrett Eckbo, Edward Williams, Francis Dean, and Don Austin, EDAW draws its
roots from San Francisco and modernist landscapes. Taking on projects of
ever-increasing complexity and size, the firm quickly gained prestige in major
land design and regional planning. By the early 1980s, the firm had designed
recreational facilities enjoyed by millions of people. Today, the staff of 1,800
spans the globe across 25 studios of smaller principal-led design teams who
employ an authentic, process-driven culture committed to advancing an agenda of
economic equity and ecological restoration. From Washington, D.C., to Dublin to
Abu Dhabi, EDAW drives projects where the principles of landscape architecture
instruct planning, architecture, and engineering, such as the master plan that
won London its bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Daniel Winterbottom, winner of the Community Service Award
Source: ASLA
The Community Service Award: Daniel Winterbottom, ASLA
Daniel Winterbottom, ASLA, associate professor in the department of landscape
architecture and adjunct professor in the department of architecture at the
University of Washington’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning, will
receive the Community Service Award. As a humanitarian, Winterbottom brings the
benefits of landscape architecture to poor, marginalized, and underserved
populations. As a professor, Winterbottom teaches how to employ low-tech,
cost-effective, sustainable materials. As a humanitarian and a professor,
Winterbottom’s projects offer community service in another significant way: He
always brings the students into the work to design and build the projects under
his guidance. Their built landscapes have benefited people in prisons, poor
communities in Mexico and Guatemala, cancer centers and other underserved groups.
About ASLA
Founded in 1899, ASLA is the national professional association for landscape
architects, representing 17,000 members in 48 professional chapters and 68
student chapters. The Society's mission is to lead, to educate and to
participate in the careful stewardship, wise planning and artful design of our
cultural and natural environments. Members of the Society use their “ASLA”
suffix after their names to denote membership and their commitment to the
highest ethical standards of the profession.
Further Information:
American Society of Landscape Architects ASLA
636 Eye Street, NW
Washington • DC 20001-3736
United States of America
Tel.: 1-202-898-2444
Fax: 1-202-898-1185
eMail: info@asla.org
web:
www.asla.org
