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Landscape & Urban Design

Landscape & Urban Design

For AN’s third annual design awards, seven jurors gathered in New York to review nearly 500 projects submitted by architects and designers.

The jury included Amale Andraos, dean of Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation; Nicholas Koster, project manager at Snøhetta; Chee Perlman, editor and curator of Chee Company; Ana Garcia Puyol, computational designer at Thornton Tomasetti; Ali Tayar; founder of Parallel Design Partnership, Terence Riley, founding partner at Keenan/Riley, and Mimi Zeiger, AN’s west coast editor.

In each category, a winner and an honorable mention were selected, although there were a couple of ties. Over the coming days, we will be posting their selections in the 21 categories.

Best of Landscape Winner

North Austin Community Garden
Architect: Thoughtbarn
Location: Austin, TX

This project, the first artist-led community garden in Austin, treats utilitarian infrastructure as a creative opportunity. Located at a YMCA in an underserved neighborhood, the 25,000-square-foot garden is laid out in a radial site plan. Each slice of the “pie” contains a different program: a wheelchair accessible area, raised beds for individual members, teaching plots, a fruit orchard, and a composting area. A public spine allows all visitors to enjoy the demonstration and gathering areas, while a volunteer-built sculptural fence encloses member beds. A hybrid toolshed and shade structure marks the entry to the garden from the adjacent parking lot.


Landscape Honorable Mention

Hilgard Garden
Architect: Mary Barensfeld Architecture
Location: Berkeley, CA


 

Best of Urban Design Winner

Buffalo Bayou Park
Architect: SWA Group
Location: Houston

This newly opened 160-acre refuge promotes health and enjoyment for Houston’s four million residents. One of the city’s few bayous that escaped channelization and concretization, Buffalo Bayou Park is a valuable downtown park. It amplifies the desirable natural traits of the bayou greenway, including native green space and habitat areas, while increasing connectivity with surrounding neighborhoods and respecting Houston’s long history as a floodplain.

“It is getting harder and harder for large cities to expand their park systems. The challenge today is to find available sites in a heavily built environment. As with Olympia Park in Seattle, the planners of Buffalo Bayou Park were able to see beyond the realities of, what would have been considered in less congested times, a hugely compromised site. The results are remarkable: as if Frederick Law Olmsted got channeled through Robert Moses.”
—Terry Riley, Keenen/Riley


Urban Design Honorable Mention

North Riverfront
Architect: Forum Studio
Location: St. Louis

 

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