2024 ASLA Student Awards

The Tar Creek Superfund Site is among the most polluted landscapes in the country. Just Land repositions ongoing efforts to remediate toxic mining waste into repositories as the foundation for a regional landscape gesture. 

Delving into the rich tapestry of historical and ecological interplay, the project is anchored at Prospect Bluff within the longleaf pine savanna. Embracing the site's historical integrity, it intertwines the Maroons' story with the intricate dynamics of the ecosystem. 

Jackeys Creek, a heavily impacted stream by saltwater intrusion in North Carolina's Cape Fear River estuary, has extensive ghost forests that no longer provide storm surge protection, putting surrounding communities at risk. The project begins by establishing saline retention zones at the entrance of Jackeys Creek through hydrological modeling and implementing engineering measures to mitigate soil alkalization for coastal soil improvement. 

Climate risk and adaptation extend far beyond coastal alignments and sea level rise. Addressing compound risks by leveraging existing assets and coordinating with other adaptation strategies at local and regional scales will be critical as landscape architects continue to position themselves as climate adaptation professionals. The Inner Coast operates regionally and locally to address the water not always included in adaptation efforts, precipitation and groundwater, to complement and enhanc

The Long Marsh Forward leverages climate-responsive design and local ecology to regenerate Belville’s connection to the Brunswick River. This project reimagines the community’s relationship to the tidally-influenced Brunswick River through aquatic and terrestrial recreational spaces, providing new economic drivers. An adaptive riverfront park ties Belville into a larger blueway system, restoring the region’s historic relationship to the water and enhancing the town’s identity.

The “Eco-booster” project transforms Ibague’s vulnerable neighborhoods by providing sustainable housing, integrating green armatures, and enhancing connectivities. Located in the historic city center, the area suffers from flooding, landslides, and poor housing conditions.

This project is aimed at designing an ideal residential model suitable for the hot and humid climate of Jeddah city. Subsequently, this residential model was thermally evaluated using the ENVI-met software and compared with the current situation of Jeddah's neighborhoods, and Al-balad district. 

Mexico City faces severe flooding during rainy seasons and water scarcity in dry seasons, exacerbated by continuous land subsidence. 

The discharge of nuclear wastewater in Japan in 2023 has significantly impacted the country's fishing industry. This project aims to address the ecological and social impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident's wastewater discharge, providing a possible future for coastal fishing villages like Choshi. It seeks to help residents transform the coastline from remnants into resource landscapes for both humans and non-humans.

How should we think about urban design in a small coastal town facing climate change? Riverside Revival weaves the urban fabric of the new downtown of Belville, North Carolina. Despite increased vulnerability to climate hazards, the town is rapidly growing and risks losing its identity.

Jamaica's harbourfront development faces hindrances from upstream pollutants carried by gullies and the community's territorial mindset. Our solution extends beyond the waterfront to address systemic issues along city gullies. 

Racial inequality is a challenging global issue, especially pronounced in South Africa. In Cape Town's Asanda and Die Bos communities, two parallel walls and the abandoned land between them completely separate black and white communities. 

Under the impact of extreme climate conditions, the vital ingredient for beer, hops, is facing serious challenges, with global hop production experiencing a significant decline. The Hallertau region provides approximately 80% of Germany's hops, making hop cultivation and processing pivotal industries in the area. 

The Yeonsu-gu area is a bird breeding site located in Incheon and there is a problem that urbanization is leading to poor habitats.

However, Yeonsu-gu has potential as an urban habitat in that it is designated as a Ramsar wetland.

Therefore, we plan sequential steps to address the problem.

With wildfires in Plumas National Forest increasing, there is an urgent need to reduce forest fuels while reforesting. Removing fuels from burnt and overstocked forests can initiate a small biochar industry, providing funds and planting medium for needed seedstock. Establishing working forests using existing campsites introduces a semi-permanent intervention that offers the opportunity to collect seeds and biomass, reforest, and educate the public. 

This project investigated the potential for design interventions on vacant lots to support the provision of ecosystem services to nearby residents. Many urban neighborhoods struggle with excessive vacant land in historically disinvested areas with declining populations. However, vacant lots can be an opportunity to promote social and ecological goals while waiting for development. 

Urban green spaces (UGS) cannot fulfil their ecological functions without considering biological responses. Birds serve as sensitive ecological indicators in the process of urbanization. In Yuelai, forests have been rapidly converted into cities over a decade, with several parcels being redeveloped into UGS. 

Through urbanization, what was green becomes grey. Given the abundance of pavement in cities, it is argued that plants such as spontaneous vegetation should be better integrated into streets and sidewalks. To develop such pavement designs, I wandered over 420 km through cities in Southern Ontario, photographing spontaneous pavement vegetation for design inspiration. 

Extreme heat in Southern Arizona is not a new phenomenon, but recent trends reiterate the need to proactively plan for increasingly hot days on a nearly year-round basis. 2023 was the hottest year on record, with Phoenix and Tucson metro areas reporting significant increases in heat-related morbidity and mortality. Tree planting is a cost-effective way of mitigating urban heat; yet, in desert urban environments, scarce water resources limit the provisioning of adequate water for tree growth.

Mining is often at the epicenter of Greenland’s most egregious acts of colonial violence. As prospectors began searching for deposits of rare earth elements in the early 2010s, an Australian mining operator discovered the second densest collection of such materials in the world at the Kvanefjeld mine.

Once fire-dependent forests are now competition-dependent, overstocked, and vulnerable to catastrophic fire. The project proposes a community-scale biomass utilization campus that aims to accelerate fuel reduction and welcome in the public through co-located businesses, recreation, and educational spaces. 

To learn how park planning, design and programming can more equitably and inclusively serve a diverse public, landscape architecture students in their Master’s Project Studio undertook a case study of Franklin Park in Boston, MA. The outcomes of the students’ collective work served as a foundation for an eight-week public exhibition, Franklin Park: Olmsted’s Crown Jewel. 

The Song Dynasty was the peak period of Chinese cultural development. As the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou, the city and forests formed a beautiful urban garden with the west lake being its center.

"Tracing the Contour of Song Dynasty West Lake" restores the gardens of the Southern Song Dynasty and promotes them to the public and tourists, and builds a bottom-up, online and offline combination of the Southern Song Dynasty West Lake garden landscape

As important components of urban green infrastructure, the ecological potential in domestic gardens is not taken seriously by the landscape architecture academia nowadays. The widely used methods of weed control are highly resource-intensive, unhelpful, or even harmful to our urban ecosystem. 

As campuses urbanize, bird habitats diminish, leading to population declines.  Exposure to pesticides and herbicides further contributes to the decline in the diversity of birds. It is imperative that educational institutions prioritize conservation efforts, construct bird-friendly spaces, and educate the public on the significance of preserving bird habitats. 

Over six days in early August 2023, our team, led by three landscape architecture students specializing in ecology and mapping, urbanism and access, and heritage conservation and narrative ethnography, embarked on a journey following the length of the LA River. Joined by a photographer, a documentarian, and community researchers, we chronicled the 51-mile trek from Canoga Park to Long Beach. 

Rikers Island, in the southern Bronx, NYC, currently houses ten detention facilities and over 6,000 inmates and is set to close by 2027 to be replaced with a borough-based jail system.  This proposal and multi-scalar design intervention argue that Rikers can play an even more significant role in serving justice after the prison closure, becoming a catalyst for reducing systematic injustice by converting one of the Bronx's weaknesses—its prevalence of marginal landscapes, including Rikers

This project in Zhoushan Village, Henan, China, addresses water shortages and soil erosion through a low-carbon water circulating landscape. It uses local and recycled materials and employs permeable paving to protect the ecosystem and reduce costs. The muti-party participation model enhances villagers' skills and environmental awareness. 

Letitia Carson’s Legacy utilizes the skills of landscape design to uplift several community organizations dedicated to honoring Letitia Carson, one of the first Black homesteaders in Oregon. This conceptual design made tangible the visions of our partners through the process of building authentic relationships and finding common ground through land stewardship. 

Current agricultural systems in California’s Central Valley cause extreme environmental degradation and contribute to ecological and public health crises. This project engages the Central Valley community of Allensworth in the development of a new place-based framework for regenerative agriculture.