The Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA) honored 26 projects this year with its annual Design Awards, including a range of Harvard University Graduate School of Design students, faculty, and alumni. The program recognizes outstanding landscape architects, students, and projects based in Massachusetts or Maine.
“From a restored wetland in a residential yard to managed retreat of a seaside town; to rethinking neighborhood playgrounds, urban streets, or a war-torn city, the jury recognized projects that expanded the definition of design excellence,” noted Ricardo Austrich, BSLA President and member of the 2019 Design Awards jury. “Landscape architecture is one means to address the complex issues of our time, and create beautiful environments in the process.”
All six of the Merit Awards in the Student Work category were given to GSD projects. They include:
- Qiaoqi Dai (MLA ’19) and Chengzhang Zhang (MLA ’19) for “Across Racial and Infrastructural Boundaries”
- Jonathan Kuhr (MLA ’20), Koby Moreno (MArch/MLA ’20), Haoyu Zhao (MLA ’20), and Sijia Zhong (MLA ’20) for “Airport Archipelago”
- Alexandra DiStefano (MLA ’20), Sophie Elias (MLA ’20), and Jonathon Koewler (MLA ’20) for “Aggregated Inundation”
- Xiwei Shen (MLA ’19), Jiawen Chen (MLA ’18), and Chengzhe Zhang (MLA ’19) for “Bloom! A Dynamic Landscape Biological System”
- Chengzhe Zhang (MLA ’19) for “Oasis + Productive Settlement”
- Xiwei Shen (MLA ’19) for “The Forehead of Arlington National Cemetery”
GSD faculty and alumni were well represented in the professional categories. Among the GSD affiliated winners were Sasaki Associates, led by James N. Miner (MUP ’01) and other GSD affiliates, which received five awards; Stoss Landscape Urbanism, the firm of Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture Chris Reed (AB ’91); and Ground, Inc., the firm founded and led by Shauna Gillies Smith (MAUD ’95).
Browse the full list of 2019 BSLA Award recipients.