Landscape Architect Articles

Connecticut Chapter Announces 2023 Awards05-09-23 | News

Connecticut Chapter Announces 2023 Awards

Connecticut Chapter of ASLA Announces 2023 Landscape Architecture Awards
by Staff

Alexander Walk at Yale University by Towers|Golde, LLC As the culmination of a decades-long process, the transformation of portions of New Haven's Wall and High streets into a pedestrian promenade, renamed Alexander Walk, unifies Yale University's campus by knitting together four university-owned blocks into a campus core with a strong sense of place. This project entailed the replacement of concrete sidewalks and asphalt roadbed with lush plant beds and unique concrete unit pavers selected to be visually compatible with adjacent historic limestone facades. Bluestone and granite cobblestone accent paving is flanked by granite planter curbs. Traditional wood and custom granite benches are placed to provide spaces for respite and gathering. Great care was taken to free the existing street trees from restrictive paving.

Borrowed Views by James Doyle Design Associates This property in the Catskill Mountains is comprised of hundreds of acres that are all maintained in their natural state. Here James Doyle Associates found an easy alignment of their goals and their client's goals; aiming to contribute to the natural ecological surroundings through the landscape design, respond to the vernacular of the place and preserve the unobstructed views overlooking the West Kill valley. All of this was coordinated while the home was under renovation and a separate garage was built. Working with the architects, the garage was positioned close to the residence but not within view. This was achieved by sinking the garage and incorporating materials that would allow it to fade into the background. The landscape walls were designed with reclaimed barn-board and Cor-Ten steel, the same materials used on the garage. Local boulders were utilized to retain the grade and reduce the overall profile of the garage and parking area.

Creekside Residence by Renee Byers Landscape Architect On a newly purchased 1.2-acre site, a young family with small children desired to create a large family garden which would also be wheelchair-accessible to the husband's disabled brother. However, they faced significant site constraints such as a stream that bisected the back lawn and a rear yard which was a full one story lower than the front. Decaying wood decking, brick walls, patios and a poorly executed swimming pool made for an unappealingly overbuilt and hardscape-covered back yard. Renee Byers Landscape Architects transformed the unremarkable, suburban environment by creating a lush, amenity-filled family garden united to the home. In the process, an important tributary to the Bronx River that ran through the lot was protected and enhanced. The lines between interior and exterior spaces were blurred through continual physical and visual links between the two. Collaboration with the architects gave character and functionality to both the house and grounds.

Cambridge Urban Forest Master Plan by Reed Hilderbrand The Cambridge Urban Forest Master Plan is an evidence-based, community-driven, and climate-forward response to decades of canopy loss. While tailored to Cambridge, the techniques, tools, and technologies could be applied in all cities. Reed Hildebrand led a diverse team-from soils scientists and arborists to lawyers and data analysists-in detailed research to understand root causes behind canopy loss, and ultimately, to direct resources wisely. Their findings dispelled myths about the City's mismanagement of its trees, identifying the varied decisions of private property owners as the primary cause of loss of urban trees.

Pointer Perch by Haver & Skolnich Architects Pointer Perch, a rustic Fishers Island property overlooking the Atlantic, is within a residential park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. in the 1920s. At the time when Olmsted laid out the park's meandering lanes and hilltop homesites the island featured unobstructed views across native grasslands sprinkled with boulders. A century later, the property had become overgrown with dense brush and invasive vines, completely obscuring the views. The design goal was to restore Olmsted's original vision, creating a meadow of native grasses as a setting for a new tower house, perched upon the site's highest point. The meadow concept responded to the clients' goal of creating a low maintenance landscape in harmony with the surrounding protected lands. Selecting drought-resistant plantings was crucial given the windy site's sandy soil and southern exposure. Mowed grass on the property is limited to a series of undulating paths through the meadow and surrounding the house and drive.

Return to the Riverbend by Langan The Return to the Riverbend Master Plan, a collaborative effort lead by Langan, and Cooper Robertson, envisions a reinvigorated riverfront for the City of Middletown, Connecticut. Currently, the riverfront properties include abandoned industrial uses, restricting public access to the water. The overall goal of this plan is to reconnect Middletown to its Connecticut River waterfront. Key project concepts include a rich system of parks and trails, new streets which create new development blocks, and new development on existing parcels. Additionally, certain elements of the transportation network are shown, such as the multi-use trail stretching the length of the project area, new transit hubs, and critically important improvements to key riverfront streets. This holistic Master Plan was carefully formulated to be implementable and able to be built in discrete phases. Financial feasibility criteria were developed based on discussions with property owners, local and state agencies, conceptual cost estimating, and potential public financing strategies. The project focused on envisioning concepts for key areas within the over 200 acres of newly developed and reinvigorated riverfront and their potential to fulfill the community's guiding principles.

Riverfront Retreat by Renee Byers Landscape Architect Overlooking a bend in a tidal river joining Long Island Sound, the owners of a beloved 1927 Tudor in Westchester County faced daunting challenges. Located along a wetland complex and in a flood zone, their 1.1acre property comprised an aging and poorly sited swimming pool, a disparate array of plants, fences, patios, and 360 lineal feet of failing seawall. The existing seawall buffer consisted of a solid row of Chinese junipers blocking most all views. The family's goals were to create a wonderful family environment for entertaining, that was respectful of their period home, resilient to seasonal flooding and an enhancement to the river ecology and views that they wanted to enjoy both from inside the home, and throughout the property.

Shifting Minds Towards Greenspaces and Well-being by the University of Connecticut This collaborative study, conducted by University of Connecticut and James Corner Field Operations, provides a novel approach to understand human perceptional changes in their experiences of and interactions with public green spaces during the early months of COVID-19. Using social media data and machine-learning techniques, it delivers new understandings of how people began to feel differently about their experiences compared to pre-COVID times. The study illuminates a renewed appreciation of nature as well as an emerging but prominent pattern of emotional and spiritual experiences expressed through a social media platform.

Albany Skyway by Stantec The Albany Skyway was an initiative to reclaim an under-utilized highway overpass for the cultural, economic, recreational, and ecological benefit of the city. In the 1960s, the construction of the 1-787 elevated highway system cut Albany neighborhoods off from the Hudson River. The highway serves as a physical and economic barrier to surrounding neighborhoods. The Skyway re-imagines a highway off ramp as an iconic connection and park, re-uniting Downtown with its waterfront. This new regional destination serves as a linear park that is inviting, engaging, accessible, and creates missing links to the region's expansive trail network, providing leisure activities for all to enjoy. The design demonstrates a technically complex implementation achievement and creative adaptation of single-use transportation infrastructure for public benefit.

Storm King Allees by Reed Hilderbrand Three tasks comprised this collaboration between the Reed Hilderbrandt design team and Storm King Art Center: analysis, design, and planting. The landscape architect-led team addressed the Museum Road All???(C)e, and Maple All???(C)e. Over several months, they completed a forensic analysis of declining and dying sugar maples. Data was developed around the trees, soils, and general maintenance year-round. The team found damage associated with the original planting (e.g., unprepared soil, burlap-wrapped roots) and management practices used for the all???(C)es. The plan recommended replacing the existing trees with more adaptive species to restore the spatial composition and seasonal beauty of the all???(C)es. However, doing so required the team to evaluate criteria in the realms of art, horticulture, and ecology. Visitor perception was important as was how well certain species might overcome circumstances that contributed to the failure of the existing trees. Resilience to a warming climate was also a factor.

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The Connecticut Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA Connecticut) has announced the winners of its annual Connecticut Professional Awards competition, recognizing excellence in landscape architectural design, planning and analysis, communication, and research. To be eligible, applicants must be a landscape architect or designer in the state of Connecticut, and the entrant or project location must be based in Connecticut.

"Masterful, clever, and beautiful landscape architecture is so important for the health of our local communities - both social and ecological - so it's an honor to shepherd this process of peer review of all the great work in Connecticut," said Ellen Fallon-Senechal, president of ASLA Connecticut and a landscape designer with S/L/A/M Collaborative in Glastonbury.

"All the award winners have proven themselves stewards of the environment and we look forward to watching their projects get better with age as well as seeing what they do next!"

Winners of the 2023 ASLA Connecticut Professional Awards competition include:

Landscape Architectural Design/Built Works - Corporate | Institutional Spaces

???,??? Towers|Golde, LLC (New Haven, CT) - MERIT AWARD for Alexander Walk at Yale University (New Haven, CT)

Landscape Architectural Design/Built Works - Municipal | Public Spaces

???,??? Stantec Landscape Architecture and Planning (New Haven, CT) - MERIT AWARD for Albany Skyway (Albany, NY)

Landscape Architectural Design/Built Works - Residential

???,??? James Doyle Design Associates (Greenwich, CT) - EXCELLENCE AWARD for Borrowed Views (West Kill, NY)
???,??? Renee Byers Landscape Architect (Greenwich, CT) - MERIT AWARD for Riverfront Retreat (Westchester County, NY)
???,??? Renee Byers Landscape Architect (Greenwich, CT) - MERIT AWARD for Creekside Residence (Scarsdale, NY)
???,??? Haver & Skolnick Architects (Roxbury, CT), in collaboration with Race Rock Garden Co. - MERIT AWARD for Pointer Perch (Fishers Island, NY)

Landscape Planning & Analysis

???,??? Reed Hilderbrand (New Haven, CT) - HONOR AWARD for Renewing Storm King Art Center's Allee (New Windsor, NY)
???,??? Reed Hilderbrand (New Haven, CT) - HONOR AWARD for Healthy Forest, Healthy City - The Cambridge Urban Forest Master Plan (Cambridge, MA)
???,??? Langan (New Haven, CT), in collaboration with Cooper Robertson - MERIT AWARD for Return to the Riverbend (Middletown, CT)

Landscape Architectural Research

???,??? University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT) and James Corner Field Operations (New York, NY) - MERIT AWARD for Shifting Minds Towards Greenspace and Well-being (Connecticut, New York & New Jersey)

The jury for this year's competition was comprised of members of the Ohio Chapter of ASLA. Select images from this year's award winners can be viewed at https://www.ctasla.org/2023-professional-awards-gallery.