The National Park Service and ASLA are pleased to congratulate the winners of the 15th annual Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) Challenge competition. The winners were officially announced at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, during the Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (PPN) Meeting. (See The Field for more highlights from the conference’s PPN events.) 

Administered by the National Park Service, in collaboration with the ASLA and Library of Congress, the HALS Challenge competition encourages landscape architects, students, and other interested parties to document historic landscapes in their communities. To enter the competition, participants must complete a historical report that highlights the history, significance, and character-defining features of the surveyed landscape. 

This year’s HALS Challenge was an open competition. Historic landscapes encompass a vast array of diverse property types and places, from formal gardens, parks, and public spaces to traditional cultural places, vernacular communities, and residential districts. To reflect this diversity, we invited landscape architects, historians, students, and others to document any landscape that would make a good addition to the collection. 

A jury composed of National Park Service historians and landscape architects reviewed the entries and selected the following winners: 

First Place: Devil’s Den State Park, HALS AR-13 

West Fork vicinity, Washington County, Arkansas 

By Kimball Erdman, Lori Filbeck, Allen Hart, Sophia Bobzien, Student ASLA, Andreia Alfaro, Emily Booth, Matthew Gauldin, Student ASLA, Brett Paris, Reed Waters, Angie Payne, Malcolm Williams, Manon Wilson; Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design and the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas  

 

Second Place: Cochran Ditch, HALS NV-6

Reno, Washoe County, Nevada 

By Dr. Jung-Hwa Kim and Jacel Zeres Avila, Student ASLA, UNLV School of Architecture; Amanda Rookey, ASLA; and Melinda Gustin, ASLA  

 

Third Place: Freedom Riders National Monument, HALS AL-9 

Anniston, Calhoun County, Alabama 

By Laura L. Knott, FASLA 

 

Honorable Mention: Ellsworth Rock Garden, HALS MN-13 

Kabetogama Township, Saint Louis County, Minnesota 

By David Driapsa, FASLA 

 

See The Field for more about the winners and the full list of submissions for the 2024 HALS Challenge.  

The competition resulted in the donation of 10 impressive surveys to the HALS collection. Thank you to all the entrants for expanding the HALS collection! 

HALS will continue the HALS Challenge in 2025, the Historic American Landscapes Survey’s 25th anniversary year, inviting all landscape architects, historians, students, and other interested parties to document significant cultural landscapes in their communities. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three submissions and the results will be announced at the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture in New Orleans.