ASLA has announced its professional awards for 2020 (and I was honored to be on the jury that met virtually last March. This is the first installment of posts on the awards.
General Design – Award of Excellence
Portland Japanese Garden
LA: Walker Macy, Portland, OR
Walker Macy worked with the garden curator, local and Japanese architects, garden staff and others to create a new 3.4 acre development for the arts and cultural programs.
The elevated site includes a new entry, pond, and a path that ascends to a central plaza with three new buildings, gardens and terraces.
The new design does not follow traditional Japanese design principles. Rather, it blends sustainable techniques with modern Japanese design to create a place where visitors may learn about the arts and culture of Japan. As the jurors noted, "an expansion blends together new and old seamlessly …. A freshly choreographed entry and arrival sequence gently ascends 90 feet of grade along an accessible wooded switchback pathway to arrive at a sublime set of pavilions designed by Kengo Kuma; these feature planted rooftops alongside stormwater retention and recirculation systems that promise to sustain the new gardens well into the future."
Urban Design – Award of Excellence
Dilworth Park, Philadelphia, PA
LA: OLIN
The new Dilworth park in Center City Philadelphia fits perfectly with William Penn's vision long ago for a "Green Country Town." Sitting at the foot of the ornate City Hall, the park now serves as a transit center for commuters, a quiet gathering place for office workers, and a public performance space for enjoyment by all.
Olin transformed the dilapidated, sunken site with malnourished trees into a street-level, vibrant 2.5 acre park with a sizeable lawn, a cafe, an interactive fountain that becomes a skating rink in winter, and ample seating throughout surrounded by four-season native plantings. And … the entire site, just three feet deep, functions as a green roof for the transit center below.
As the jurors put it, the park now serves as the "democratic front porch of City Hall–that links three major transit networks into a single, multilayered node. Spanning four acres, yet wrapped on three sides by busy thoroughfares, the park succeeds in offering workday respite for downtown commuters as well as a central gathering and recreation space for weekend visitors."
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