This year, the American Society of Landscape Architects awarded Duke University's West Campus, and its lead designers, with an ASLA Honor Award in the General Design Category. In order to win this award, the establishment must be a public, an institutional or a private landscape.

With Duke winning this award, one of only eight given this year, it marks the second time any project from North Carolina has won the national award for design in "several decades," states DukeToday.

Five specific areas of Duke's West Campus received laud for their designs, which include: Abele Quad, Crown Commons, Penn Pavilion Terrace, Union Drive and Perkins Library.

The ASLA description for the award reads, "While the timing and funding of each implementation project has been driven by specific institutional priorities, all realize a larger ambition to shape a sustainable, connected, and activated student precinct that celebrates the history of the campus while engaging a progressive view of student life and academic diversity."