2019 ASLA Oregon Design Awards

The ASLA Oregon Design Awards program celebrates professional and student excellence by recognizing the firms, individuals, and agencies responsible for outstanding works of landscape architecture and environmental planning in Oregon and beyond. This year’s winners were announced on November 1, 2019, at the ASLA Oregon Design Awards Soirée.

Seven projects received Honor Awards and three projects received the Award of Excellence, a designation reserved by the jury for only the most outstanding projects. In addition, two student projects received Honor Awards. All award-winning and submitted projects can be found below.

The awards were decided by a jury with diverse landscape architecture, academic, and development expertise to review the submissions and deliberate the winners. The 2019 jury included:

• Jeff Schnabel / Director for the School of Architecture, Portland State University / Portland, OR

• Sandra Fischer, FASLA / Principal, Land Morphology / Seattle, WA

• Mark Brands, PLA / Managing Principal, SiteWorkshop / Seattle, WA

• Michelle Arab, ASLA / Director of Landscape Architecture, Olson Kundig / Seattle, WA

• Suenn Ho / Urban Designer and Principal, Resolve Architecture + Planning / Portland, OR

The annual recognition awards were also presented. Paula Barreto, ASLA received the 2019 Outstanding Emerging Professional Award, MIG Portland received the 2019 Outstanding Firm Award, and Melinda Graham, ASLA, received the 2019 Lord & Schryver Award. The President’s Chapter Service Award, given to recognize outstanding volunteer service on behalf of the chapter and the profession, was awarded to Shannon Simms and Andrew Jepson-Sullivan.

Students from the University of Oregon Department of Landscape Architecture were also recognized for their outstanding academic achievements. Emma Hershey, Summer Young, Sierra McCormas, and Nick Sund were all acknowledged for their design excellence, outstanding mentorship and leadership, and their potential for future professional impact. Deanna Lynn received the 2019 ASLA Student scholarship.

Project Statement: In an area of NE Portland, still surrounded by working farms, sits 16 acres of land on the edge of the Columbia River’s historic flood plain that represents Portland’s newest generation of parks. Luuwit View Park – Luuwit, the Native Cowlitz word for Mt. St. Helens – features commanding views of the distant mountains and opportunities to reach a neighborhood that has been historically deficient in recreational open space. The neighborhood, a mix of post-war ranch housing and a rapidly changing demographic, is home to scores of spoken languages resulting from a recent influx of young immigrant families to the area. This mixture of young and old and its resultant ethnic diversity sets the theme for a new generation of parks that must navigate these cultural changes and bring new ideas about recreation to the City. Through an extensive public outreach effort and a dynamic set of site challenges, Luuwit View Park has emerged from the existing farm fields as a dynamic new neighborhood gathering place in the Argay Neighborhood.

Project Statement: The L.L. Hawkins and Slabtown Marketplace project encompasses two city blocks within Northwest Portland It stitches together an extensive network of plazas and open space and is ringed by a vibrant streetscape. The site is anchored by two developments with a public plaza and court. This project was the first completed development within the 12 block Con-Way Master Plan and has served as a catalyst for further development and revitalization in the surrounding area. 

The Landscape Architect played the lead role in orchestrating the character and layout of each of the outdoor spaces, including the plazas, terraces, an ecoroof, the streetscape and custom furnishings. The open spaces and streetscapes were carefully crafted to integrate the rich history of the area. At the same time, the new site improvements establish a vision for the future development of the district, a vision that aims to reintegrate under-utilized industrial sites back into the tight-knit urban fabric of Northwest Portland.

In collaboration with: Cairn Pacific, Holst Architecture, GBD Architects

Project Statement: Rockridge is a distinctive community and neighborhood park in Central Oregon that blends conservation of a native juniper forest landscape with recreational amenities catered to the active lifestyle of its residents. Designed and implemented features include a system of paved and natural trails; mountain biking skills courses; nature play area; traditional play area; skate park; disc golf putting course; and a large open space with lawn, picnic tables and park shelter. 

In addition to providing traditional park amenities, Rockridge strives for an identity that distinguishes itself from other community parks within the District and elsewhere. It embraces its native setting through the preservation of existing open space, the integration of active spaces proximate to existing rock outcroppings, and by repurposing salvaged on-site materials throughout the park. Several park features – in particular the bike skills course, nature play, and disc putting course – have a focus on beginning and intermediate users who benefit from a premise of building physical literacy. Its skatepark is a signature element, featuring a unique lunar-scape design.

In collaboration with: LandCurrent, Evergreen Skate Parks, Trail Wisdom, PBS, KIA; Client: Bend Park and Recreation District

Project Statement: Field Office is an urban office campus where nature intersects with office space as a series of outdoor rooms, indoor landscapes, high parks, sky parks and green roofs, blurring the boundaries between built and natural environments. The result is a restorative landscape that is designed to enhance the well-being of employees and visitors alike while contributing to the development of critical habitat corridors within the city.

In collaboration with: Project^, Hacker Architects

Project Statement: Stories linked to places are ubiquitous, but rarely are those stories researched to a level that links them to an actual space at different moments in time. The process of developing a cultural landscape report for Willamette Falls completed that long overdue process using primary research from multiple archives to ground truth historic myths and events, highlighting both the ugly and celebratory truths about a particularly potent nexus of historic events in Oregon.

In uncovering centuries of history, this project balanced stories form multiple and often conflicting perspectives, posing the critical question - whose narrative is it? The cultural landscape report provides rich, thought-provoking content that helped one American Indian tribe learn more about where a series of devastating events that affected their ancestors occurred, inspired designers seeking to define the next chapter in this place's story, is helping mitigate future construction impacts, and will ensure that interpretation is inclusive of everyone's story who has had a hand in shaping Willamette Falls.

In collaboration with: AECOM (subconsultant); City of Oregon City and Metro (client)

Project Statement: We are handing our youth a world wrought in social and environmental problems. They need knowledge and practice to be equipped to invent, test and lead. Our youth Landscape Architecture 101 course carries a group of students through the design process on a tangible and real-world scale. They measure, create maps, evaluate precedents, negotiate a program, consider what others need from the space, work on verbal and graphic communication, and often see built results.

They are left with real world tested social and cognitive skills. But, the pride, ownership, and value of social capital built far outweighs the value of the testable skills. We know Landscape Architecture is a powerful profession. We use this curriculum to inspire and teach this to youth.      

Project Statement: Beloved by the Ashland community, Lithia Park is as central to Ashland’s identity as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Most visitors see Lithia Park as a landscape that was conceived in its entirety more than 100 years ago. In actuality, the park was designed and built in pieces and has evolved over time. The challenge for the design team was to identify the essence of the Lithia Park experience and develop a plan to protect and amplify those elements, within the context of a highly participatory and passionate community with differing views on how to protect their treasured park. Through a highly transparent two-year process, the design team illuminated four key themes that define Lithia Park, identified big moves for improving the ecological health of Ashland Creek and the surrounding forest, and created strategies to enhance and preserve the park’s iconic features. The resulting Lithia Park Master Plan serves as a guide for the Ashland Park and Recreation Commission, ensuring that Lithia Park continues to shine as Ashland’s jewel for the next 100 years.

In collaboration with: Ecological Engineering, LLC, KenCairn Landscape Architecture, KPFF Consulting Engineers Environmental Consultants, and APRC Staff and Commissioners

Project Statement: The Green Loop is a concept for a continuous pedestrian and bicycle trail encircling Portland’s inner city—an urban promenade for all ages and abilities. It’s a planning framework for connecting people to attractions, parks and open spaces. It amplifies and re-invents the character of districts that it passes through. It dwells at the intersection of cultural identity and celebration of cultural arts. The Green Loop utilizes existing street rights-of-way as its network. Providing additional open space and connections of neighborhoods, it shapes the Central City as Portland accommodates an anticipated 30% growth and density by the year 2035. The concept is unique; and the planning process has been remarkable. This vision represents a collaboration among city bureaus where land-use, transportation and recreation will utilize public spaces in new ways. It’s a city-led initiative representing the ideas and work of many hands of citizens, stakeholders, academic professionals, developers and designers. Its implementation is incremental and inclusive; it guides district master plans, helps prioritize bridges and other new infrastructure projects and informs block-by-block private development efforts.  

In collaboration with: City of Portland - Bureau of Planning & Sustainability, Bureau of Transportation; Portland Parks & Recreation, Prosper Portland, Untitled Studio

Project Statement: Kinetic DeLight was a temporary interactive art installation designed to activate and brighten the season during the Portland Winter Light Festival. The annual free citywide event is hosted by the non-profit Willamette Light Brigade, inviting the community to marvel at jury-selected illuminated creations submitted by artists and designers. Installed beneath the Tilikum Crossing Bridge near the Willamette River, Kinetic DeLight was a truly visual and tactile delight - reflecting the playful energy of all who interacted with it. With 700 human-powered LED skateboard wheels, it glowed with streaks of light like a comet, as festival goers found myriad ways to spin it into life. Its sturdy, customized steel frame adapted to the promenade slope and its color responded to the illumination of the bridge. The installation offered interactions at multiple heights, inviting irresistible touch sensations of texture, pressure and movement. It appealed to people of different backgrounds, ages and abilities, including those in strollers, wheelchairs, and with vision impairment. It drew out the joyful child in all of us!

In collaboration with: Portland Winter Light Festival, Adam Pond (Fabrication Consultant), Bob Grummel (Structural Adviser)

Project Statement: Since 1885, Alpine Avenue in McMinnville, Oregon, has served as a semi-improved access road to the Historic Granary District, and for railroad-related uses. In recent years, the neighborhood has welcomed wineries, breweries and numerous creative craft businesses. With city-approved plans for catalyzing additional private development, re-imagining Alpine became a priority. To create a one-of-a-kind street that serves the district and the greater McMinnville community, designers took inspiration the nearby Yamhill River, plotted design elements based on musical annotation, and created a new landscape that honors the rustic-industrial context.                  

Today, the five-block project prioritizes bicycle and pedestrian traffic and serves as a destination for street festivals. Impressively, at least six new private developments have been initiated since the avenue reopened in 2018. As such, the simple yet memorable streetscape design bridges a rich historic legacy and a prosperous future.

In collaboration with: HDR, City of McMinnville

Project Statement: The Experimental Sculpture Garden project examines the complex history of a novel ecosystem, presenting a sculpture garden composed of soil extracted from a site just north of the University of Oregon. The 3D printed soil sculptures in kiln-fired and unfired states express change over time and investigating the interaction of seed and vegetation uptake on the concave and convex sculptures. The soil sculptures representative of each ecoregion of the site showcase possibilities for increasing ecological richness through sculpture. 

This is a unique project as it serves as a sort of sculptural test garden and invites the community to gather and more closely examine their surroundings and also learn about innovative 3D printing techniques applied in the landscape.

Project Statement: As landscape architects and designers, we have many ways of conducting field work that captures the features found at our sites. But when a site contains a body of water, these “dry land” techniques like sketching and photography do not allow us to see the nuances of what is found beneath the surface, and it is important to consider that the land that we impact with our designs does not end at the lake or river’s edge. For the 2019 Overlook Field School, students were tasked with designing an instrument to provide landscape architects with a new way of seeing a site that poses design challenges. My site contained a small man-made lake that at first glance would not seem difficult at all. However, the closer I looked, a long history of sediment buildup, damming and water level issues became apparent. The instrument that I designed is meant to tell this lake’s story by going beneath the surface and gathering images from inside the water column to describe the sediment and plant life that exist there. These abstract images draw attention to the seemingly invisible elements of a difficult landscape and help us as designers consider our role in building functional ecosystems. 

Project Statement: Perched along the Deschutes River near Bend, Oregon, Riley Ranch Nature Reserve (RRNR) provides ecologically-sustainable visitor access to 184 acres of protected land along the Deschutes River. RRNR features a dramatic river canyon, basalt outcrops, pine and juniper groves, and high desert grasslands. The planning and design of RRNR was inspired by a deep sense of place and establishes long- term protection, enhancement, and stewardship of natural, cultural, and recreational resources on site. It provides educational opportunities, access for people of all physical abilities, and unique recreation experiences while protecting fish and wildlife habitat and native vegetation communities. A multidisciplinary team, led by a landscape architecture prime, assisted Bend Park & Recreation District (BPRD) in developing a natural resources management plan, master plan, and phase 1 development that celebrate the nature reserve’s rich landscape while minimizing impacts to the land. At every phase and scale, the landscape served as a touchstone, guiding design decisions to reflect the value placed on natural resources and cultural heritage by the community, the client, and the design team.

In collaboration with: Bend Park & Recreation District, Anderson Krygier, Aron Faegre & Associates, KPFF, GeoDesign, BECON, John Thompson & Associates, Kittelson, PAE

All of the projects below were submitted for the 2019 Design Awards. Thank you to everyone who submitted projects for consideration, and congratulations to those who won awards!

Thank you to our 2019 design awards sponsors: