Categories

General Design

Recognizes: site-specific works of landscape architecture. Professional entries in this category must be built; student entries are not required to be built.

Typical entries include: public, institutional, or private landscapes of all kinds (except residential—see residential category); historic preservation, reclamation, conservation; green roofs, stormwater management, sustainable design; design for transportation or infrastructure; landscape art or installation; interior landscape design; and more.

Criteria: The jury will consider the quality of design and execution (for professional entries); design context; environmental sensitivity and sustainability; and design value to the client and to other designers.

Recognition: The Professional Awards Jury and the Student Awards Jury may each select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards in this category.

Residential Design

Recognizes: site-specific works of landscape architecture for residential use. Professional entries in this category must be built; student entries in this category are not required to be built.

Typical entries include: single or multifamily residential projects; activity areas for cooking, entertaining, recreation, or relaxation; sustainable landscape applications; new construction or renovation projects; historic preservation; affordable landscape concepts and innovations; and more.

Criteria: The jury will consider the quality of design and execution (for professional entries); context; environmental sensitivity and sustainability; and design value to the client and to other designers.

Recognition: The Professional Awards Jury and the Student Awards Jury may each select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards in this category.

Analysis and Planning

Recognizes: the wide variety of professional activities that lead to, guide, and evaluate landscape architecture design. Entries in this category are not required to be built or implemented.

Typical entries include: urban, suburban, rural, or regional planning efforts; development guidelines; transportation, town, or campus planning; plans for reclamation of brownfield sites; environmental planning in relation to legislative or policy initiatives or regulatory controls; cultural resource reports; natural resources protection; historic preservation planning; and more.

Criteria: The jury will consider the quality of the analysis and planning effort; context; environmental sensitivity and sustainability; likelihood of successful implementation; and value to the client, the public, and other designers.

Recognition: The Professional Awards Jury and the Student Awards Jury may each select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards in this category.

Communications

NOTE: An official entrant in the Professional Awards Communications category is not required to be a landscape architecture professional.

Recognizes: achievements in communicating landscape architecture works, techniques, technologies, history, or theory, and the lesson value to an intended audience.

Typical entries include: print media, film, video, audio, CD, or DVD formats; online communications; interpretive design; exhibition design; and more.

Criteria: The jury will consider the effectiveness of message presentation, the innovation in approach or delivery, and the value to the intended audience.

Recognition: The Professional Awards Jury and the Student Awards Jury may each select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards in this category.

Research

NOTE: An official entrant in the Professional Awards Research category is not required to be a landscape architecture professional.

Recognizes: research that identifies and investigates challenges posed in landscape architecture, providing results that advance the body of knowledge for the profession.

Typical entries include: investigations into methods, techniques, or materials related to landscape architecture practice; studies of relationships of landscape architecture to law, education, public health and safety, or public policy; and more.

Criteria: The jury will consider how the research is framed; the context and resources of the study; the methods of inquiry; the results of investigation; and the lesson value of the research conclusions to the field at large.

Recognition: The Professional Awards Jury and the Student Awards Jury may each select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards in this category.

The Landmark Award

NOTE: An official entrant in this category is not required to join ASLA in order to enter. Local organizations, public officials, and other interested individuals are welcome to enter a qualified project in this category.

Recognizes: a distinguished landscape architecture project completed between 15 and 50 years ago that retains its original design integrity and contributes significantly to the public realm of the community in which it is located.

Typical entries include: parks, plazas, sculpture gardens, botanical gardens, river walks, and more. Public officials and agencies, civic and historic preservation organizations, and interested individuals and entities are encouraged to submit projects in this category.

Criteria: The jury will consider the project's sustained value to the community it serves and the continued relevance of the project's design expression.

Recognition: The Professional Awards Jury may select one Landmark Award recipient.

The Student Community Service Award

Recognizes: pro bono community service by students demonstrating sound principles and values of landscape architecture.

Typical entries include: individual students, student teams, or student organizations providing pro bono community-based advocacy or public service.

Criteria: The jury will consider the effectiveness related to the service and the demonstration value to other communities, students, and professionals.

Recognition: The Student Awards Jury may select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards in this category.

Student Collaboration

Recognizes: collaborative work by landscape architecture students with students from allied and/or complementary disciplines, including those in other design fields, business, and the natural and social sciences, for example. Student entries are not required to be built.

Typical entries include: landscape architecture projects that meet the criteria within the categories of General Design, Residential Design, Analysis and Planning, Research, Communications, and Community Service brought about through collaborative effort among students from landscape architecture programs and allied and/or complementary disciplines.

Criteria: Projects submitted in this category must be team projects, and each team must include at least one landscape architecture student and one nonlandscape architecture student. The jury will evaluate the project under the criteria outlined in the appropriate category and will also consider the demonstration of collaboration among the disciplines represented on each team.

Recognition: The Student Awards Jury may select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards in this category.