LAF has announced the 2014 Olmsted Winners, including Sara Zewde (top), a master's student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Erin Percevault (bottom), an undergraduate at Louisiana State University.
Photo: Landscape Architecture Foundation

The Landscape Architecture Foundation has announced two winners and six finalists for the 2014 Olmsted Scholars Program, a national award and recognition program for landscape architecture students.

Sara Zewde, a master's student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, was selected as the 2014 National Olmsted Scholar and recipient of the $25,000 graduate prize. She intends to use the award to return to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and New Orleans, Louisiana to continue working with the communities of Pequena ?????frica and Treme in designing their urban landscapes in a culturally and ecologically relevant manner. Sara expects to receive a Master of Landscape Architecture in May 2015.

Erin Percevault, an undergraduate at Louisiana State University, is the other 2014 National Olmsted Scholar and recipient of the $15,000 undergraduate prize. Erin plans to use the award to investigate how thorium extraction in Lemhi Pass, a National Historic Landmark along the wildlife corridor between Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, can be tailored to local ecologies to minimize exposure of both wilderness areas and local communities to toxic externalities. Erin is pursuing a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and expects to graduate May in 2015.

Also honored are six National Olmsted Scholar Finalists, who each received a $1,000 award. The graduate finalists are:

• VeraEve Giampietro, University of Washington
• Harriett Jameson, University of Virginia
• Anneliza Kaufer, University of Pennsylvania