2024 Class of Fellows, Adriaan Geuze, FASLA, ASLA Council of Fellows

West 8, Rotterdam, Netherlands
by West 8

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The breadth and diversity of Adriaan Geuze's award-winning work spans nearly four decades, over 60 countries, and many cultures, and has been transformative for urban communities worldwide. He has helped shift the idea of infrastructure from simplistic support for mechanical function and logistics to being a medium for people to live a richer, higher quality of life within the public domain. He was recently awarded the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award by the International Federation of Landscape Architects for his lifetime achievements and meaningful impact. Under his direction, West 8's projects and masterplans are recognized for their commitment to pragmatism, reaching the widest possible audience by maximizing spatial, budgetary, and material constraints. At Governor's Island in New York City, they turned a former island military base into an award-winning, 172-acre public park. Its radical masterplan includes the creation of four hills that lift the landscape 70 feet above sea level and offer visitors a range of experiences with the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty. The award-winning Houston Botanic Garden project included designing the first phase of the garden and creating a phased experimental and resilient master plan. The former golf course site required a design that balanced elevating the new gardens and permanent structures out of the 100-year floodplain and managing, protecting, and enhancing the experience of the bayou. At SoundScape Park in the heart of Miami Beach, Geuze transformed an existing parking lot into a three-acre urban green oasis that knits together core cultural institutions and supports a host of programmatic demands and a diverse audience.

As seen in LASN magazine, November 2024.