2023 World Landscape Architecture Awards announced — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

The 2023 World Landscape Architecture Award winners have been announced.

Pier 26, the latest segment of Hudson River Park in New York, which opened to the public in September 2020 was one of the winning projects, taking out the Award of Excellence in the Built, Large Design category.

“Conceived more than 20 years ago as an ecological park, the client commissioned the design team in 2015 to conceptualise, design, and implement this ambitious vision for the disused maritime pier, while also creating a much-needed neighbourhood park for its surrounding community,” writes WLA founder Damian Holmes.

Built – Large Design, Award of Excellence; Pier 26 at Hudson River Park – OLIN | Image Credit: Kristian Alveo for Kebony.

Boston’s This was Once a Pond: North Meadow is the winner of the Award of Excellence in the Built Small Landscape Design category. The North Meadow, says Damian, is a site of constant reinvention. “Once open water within the Charles River Estuary, then dammed to become “Mill Pond,” it was later filled as part of 19th Century development. In the 20th century, this site was overshadowed by elevated Interstate 93. After years of planning and construction — the famed Big Dig,— I-93 went subterranean, allowing for the realisation of The Rose Kennedy Greenway, a corridor of Parks knitting together Downtown Boston.

“As the northernmost and last unbuilt Park space on The Greenway, North Meadow is both a gateway and a keystone greenspace providing outsized impact and a much-needed natural oasis for downtown Boston.“
The jurors reviewed over 250 entries in nine categories and selected the following 2023 WLA Awards Winners:

Built – Small Design, Award of Excellence; This Was Once a Pond: North Meadow on The Rose Kennedy Greenway – ASK+ and Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design LLC. Photography: Jane Messinger & Chris Rucinski.

Here is the full list of winners.
Built – Large Design

Award of Excellence; Pier 26 at Hudson River Park – OLIN
Merit Award; Houston Arboretum and Nature Center – Design Workshop, Inc and Reed Hilderbrand, The Dark Line – MICHELE&MIQUEL ARCHITECTURE&PAYSAGE / dA VISION DESIGN
Honour Award; Reviving NAN TOU: A Place Caught in the Pitfall of Gentrification – Lab D+H Shanghai, Palm Springs Downtown Park – RIOS

Built – Small Design

Award of Excellence; This Was Once a Pond: North Meadow on The Rose Kennedy Greenway – ASK+ and Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design LLC
Merit Award; Forest Path Roques Blanques – Batlleiroig Arquitectura
Honour Award; Winthrop Family Historical Garden – MKSK, Bamboo Forest Garden Installation Playscape – FLO

Built – Commerical Residential Design, Award of Excellence; From Gutter to Valley: Activating a Neglected Canal as a Community Hub – Lab D+H Shanghai. Photo Credit: Bing Lu.

Built - Commercial Residential

Award of Excellence; From Gutter to Valley: Activating a Neglected Canal as a Community Hub – Lab D+H Shanghai
Merit Award; The Valley Courtyard- Atelier Scale, Baiziwan Community Housing Landscape Design – Earthasia(Shanghai) Co., Ltd
Honour Award; Yin Xiu Residence – Platform Design Group

Built – Private Residential Design

Award of Excellence; Private Garden Blaricum – Baljon landscape architects
Merit Award; Six Square House – Coen+Partners
Honour Award; Black Fox Ranch: Extending the Legacy of the West to a New Generation – Design Workshop, Inc. and CLB Architects

Built – Urban Design

Award of Excellence; Renovation Plan for Second Grinding Wheel Factory – Lab D+H Shanghai
Merit Award; Boca de la Mina Promenade – Batlleiroig Arquitectura
Honour Award; Alfred Place Gardens – LDA Design, Rijnvliet Edible Neighborhood – Felixx Landscape Architects and Planners

Concept – Analysis & Planning

Award of Excellence; BiodiverCITY_A Matter of Vital Soil! – Joyce van den Berg and City of Amsterdam
Merit Award; The Grand Bayway – TLS Landscape Architecture, ntioquia Municipal River Parks – Gobernacion De Antioquia / Juan Pablo Lopez – Sebastian Monsalve Gomez
Honour Award; Waxberry Hyperlink: Revitalization of DW Industry, Community & Culture – LANDartitude 景度景观, Caño Martín Peña Comprehensive Infrastructure Master Plan – OLIN

Concept – Large Design

Award of Excellence; 1881: A Farm Park for a Regenerative Future – Superbloom
Merit Award; Nova Zbrojovka Brno – Brownfield transformation – Baljon landscape architects
Honour Award; Jiading Green Ring Campus – TLS Landscape Architecture, Duincasino Middelkerke – DELVA Landscape architecture | Urbanism

Concept – Small Design

Award of Excellence; Polar Explorer playground in Murmansk – Art. Lebedev Studio & Chekharda
Merit Award;vHuizhi High-tech Mixed-use therapy park – Antao
Honour Award;vBernal Heights Residence – Munden Fry Landscape Associates, Santa Lucia Preserve Residence – Munden Fry Landscape Associates

Concept – Commercial Residential

Award of Excellence; Geestwater Lisse – DELVA Landscape architecture | Urbanism
Merit Award; Orchard Farm Kent – EDLA (Eleanor and Donald Landscape Architects) and Collective – Urban Strategies
Honour Award; Meadow Fields Village Masterplan Livable Neighborhoods in Yilan’s Rice Fields – PLAT Studio

Editors’ Award

Award of Excellence; A Waterfront Homestead Reborn Restorative Design in the Yangtze Delta Polders – Shanghai Landscape Architecture Design and Research Institute Co.，LTD. (SLADI)

2023 WLA Awards Professional Jury

Anna Cawrse, ASLA | Principal, Denver Office Co-Director | Sasaki
Jennifer Cooper, RLA | Landscape Architecture Bureau Manager | San Francisco Public Works
Mohan Rao | Partner and Principal Designer | INDÉ
Kate Tooke, ASLA, PLA | Principal, Landscape Architect | Agency Landscape + Planning
Gerwin de Vries | Landscape architect and Owner | Flux landscape architecture
Mike Wood, FLI | Director, Landscape Architecture | Arup