Heart of the City: Award of Excellence, General Design [pictured above]

This project re-imagines a car-centric streetscape of two city blocks and a plaza as a new public realm aligned with the city’s vibrant and diverse community. Proactive community engagement drove the success of this work: over 70 pop-up and prototyping events, one-on-one stakeholder meetings, artist sessions, and other engagement events captured a true understanding of the community’s needs and desires for this project. The project pioneers a curbless street design, integrates dramatic public art installations from local and internationally known artists, and utilizes custom-designed accessible site furniture. Cutting-edge sustainability strategies promote greenery and reduce stormwater runoff and ice-melting salt usage.

Park(ing) Day: Merit Award, Communications Category [pictured right]

At the edge of the mighty Mississippi, in the middle of a vibrant urban core, a Park(ing) Day “parklet” was created to communicate the powerful characteristics of food and share personal stories. The artful, abstract installation was designed to offer seeds to visitors to take home and plant in their gardens. In return, patrons were asked to leave stories, in the form of handwritten notes, about their food traditions, memories, or general observations.

Belvedere Avenue: Honor Award, Residential Category [pictured below]

Belvedere Avenue artfully weaves together a challenging 146’ of steep grade change, dramatic views, and complex circulation requirements. An innovative and restrained design vocabulary brings the site’s topography to life, both visually and functionally. Seeking to create a series of landscape experiences while descending through the garden, the landscape architects designed a sculptural landscape where dramatic site walls shape a nature-forward landscape of transitions—views, movement, views, movement. The project feels at once fresh and new, and entirely integrated with the site