Congratulations to the 2021 Student Award Recipients!
Thank you to Central States Chapter ASLA for jurying the 2021 awards program.
Watch the 2021 awards presentation video below.
Reinstituting the Brandywine Style
Zhenhang Cai, Wuqi Lyu, DJ Bromley, Emma Ruggiero
University of Delaware, Texas A&M University
Faculty Advisor: Galen Newman
Project Location: Wilmington, DE
Project Statement:
Historic industrialization along Brandywine Creek has left behind vacant contaminated sites and scarce waterfront access in Wilmington, Delaware. Focusing on riverfront brownfield restoration, this 130-acre plan aims to mitigate impacts of heavily industrialized areas in the floodplain, while connecting the Northeast neighborhood to the water. Drawing inspiration from the local Brandywine style of painting, picturesque landscape designs are combined with green infrastructure to reduce pollution and flooding while reestablishing the natural beauty of the creek.
ReTHINK The Refinery: 2100
Sidney Buckingham and Alyssa Hannigan
Temple University
Faculty Advisors: Donna Shumpert and Andrew Hayes
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Project Statement:
The 1300 ac. Philadelphia Energy Solutions site was the oldest oil refinery on the East Coast and the largest contributor of air pollution in the City of Philadelphia. Operations ceased in 2019 and the site was sold to developer HILCO. Based on thorough environmental and social site analysis the recommendations in this proposal embrace the potential for the site to become reintegrated into Philadelphia by harmonizing ecological restoration, community development, and a growing economy.
Design Strategies for Erosion Control at Presque Isle State Park
Lauren Taylor
Penn State University
Project Statement:
This project addresses the issue of erosion along the Lake Erie shoreline at Presque Isle State Park. It presents a comprehensive master plan design along the park’s lake shoreline, offering specific design strategies related to the park’s shoreline processes, ecology, and human experience in order to preserve and even enhance the park’s current functions for wildlife and visitors alike.
Finding Beauty in the Commonplace
Benjamin Nardi
Thomas Jefferson University
Faculty Advisor: Matthew Tucker
Project Location: Overbrook, Philadelphia, PA
Project Statement:
Though often overlooked and inaccessible, vacant urban sites are teeming with wildlife and a special, delicate beauty. These autonomous landscapes that have been cut off and forgotten, provide places to think, walk, and refuel just by being. Finding Beauty in the Commonplace uses this forgotten landscape to build upon the existing history, community, and characteristics of an urban brownfield site in Overbrook, Philadelphia.
Temple Terra
Abigail Long
Temple University
Faculty Advisor: Baldev Lamba
Project Location: Temple University Main Campus, Philadelphia, PA
Project Statement:
Temple Terra reimagines the public realm of Temple University by creating an iconic, multifunctional centralized gathering space for humans and other species. “Terra” from the Latin word earth or land, encapsulates the driving force of this project – reintroducing nature, and all of its benefits, to the educational urban landscape. Designed during the height of COVID-19, development of this project sought to create an outdoor educational environment with students affected by the pandemic in mind.
Riparian Park System
Fahimeh Farhadi
Penn State University
Faculty Advisors: Hong Wu and Travis Flohr
Project Location: State College, PA
Project Statement:
A systematic approach to address impaired streams. The design overlays social and environmental context to create a multifunctional space that serves as a relaxing spot for an elderly community and treats and infiltrates run-off before flowing into the stream. Stormwater management tools like rain gardens, detention ponds, and wetlands, illustrate the water treatment process and visitors can walk through the site using a wooden boardwalk to go over the stream, watching these tools at work.
The Ribbon: Bartram north campus-park
Zimeng Chen
Penn State University
Faculty Advisors: Michael Saltarella, Alec Spangler, and Abhinandan Bera
Project Location: Philadelphia, PA
Project Statement:
The deserted, post-industrial land is embedded with social and environmental value through the transformation into a vibrant riverfront campus-park. It provides solutions to its complex contextual challenges. Socially, its diverse programs promote inclusion to a variety of end-users. It also pays special tribute to its industrial history through spatial forms. Environmentally, it uses a sustainable way to cope with future flooding events, and it serves as an urban refugee both anthropogenically and ecologically.