Congratulations to the 2023 Student Award Recipients!

Thank you to the Kentucky ASLA Chapter for jurying the 2023 awards program.

General Design

Rewilding: Co-create with Birds

Zicheng Zhao
University of Pennsylvania
Faculty Advisor: Karen M’Closkey

Project Location: Fishtown, Philadelphia

Project Statement:

I-95 divides Fishtown’s riverfront from the rest of the neighborhood, with typical post-industrial traits such as desolate, abandoned, and inaccessible. Riverfront is a valuable asset both for the Fishtown neighborhood and migratory birds. This proposal seeks to “rewild” the post-industrial riverfront by building habitats for birds and facilitate the interaction between people and wildness through diverse programs and creating a wild experience for people through catalog, contrast, intensity, and unexpectedness.

Gathering Water

Samuel Emory
Temple University
Faculty Advisors: Kate Benisek & Tracey Cohen

Project Location: Eastwick, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Eastwick is one of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. A history of repeated flooding – compounded by environmental toxicity and neglect – has left residents disenfranchised and in need of solutions. Gathering Water seeks to interweave hydrological systems and community resources to benefit both residents and ecology. The project proposes to gather water – but also to gather energy, ideas, people, materials, and other valuable resources – to nourish healthy, resilient, sustainable, community-led development strategies.

Additional Project Credit: Thanks to all the residents of Eastwick who shared their stories with others over the last ten years, and for making those stories available to the general public.

Design by Decomposition

Sidney Buckingham
Temple University
Faculty Advisors: Kate Benisek & Rob Kuper

Project Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Project Statement:

Death and abandonment share a fundamental characteristic: they are usually thought of as endings. But, as we know, in nature endings are really the beginnings of a new cycle.

This vision for Historic Mount Moriah Cemetery encompasses its environmental and cultural history to create a new cycle that reveals the regenerative potential of decay by creating multi-functional public spaces and a new green memorial landscape. The design seeks to enhance social, ecological, and historical connections to the site by interweaving each of these dimensions into mutually supportive systems.

Additional Project Credit: Sue Mrugal, Mike Coll, Mark Gallagher, Jo Cosgrove

Collaboration

Adapting and Living with Changing Coastal Conditions

DJ Bromley, Lexi Dart, Chris Fettke von Koeckritz, Andrew Gainey, James Hill, Garret Knobl, Chris McCarron, Leigh Muldrow, Delaney Pillotte, Claudia Schreier, and Michael Tobin
University of Delaware
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jules Bruck

Project Statement:

The Town of Bowers, located in Delaware on the Bayshore, regularly battles storm surges and day-to-day flooding. Sea level rise, a consequence of climate change, poses severe threats to this small coastal town’s survival and impacts the health and welfare of Bowers residents.

This project uses nature-based solutions to mitigate these threats by generating landscapes that will grow and evolve with climate change, protect the community, and bolster ecosystem function and biodiversity.