The Prairie Gateway ASLA (PGASLA) chapter recently held their annual awards gala, where practicing and aspiring Landscape Architects from across Kansas and Western Missouri were honored for their work on projects with local and global impact. Awards were given for both built and unbuilt projects, with separate categories for students and professionals in Planning and Analysis as well as Design.

 
In the Professional Planning and Analysis category, Midwest-based firm SWT Design received awards of Honor for two projects, the first being the W??ksape Makocefood Systems District, which aims to create a garden and market space in South Dakota. The second included plans for the Wendell Phillips Accelerator Campus that would turn a closed school complex in Kansas City into a community wellness center. In the Student category, Yixin Jiang, a recent graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, received a Merit award for her analysis of cattle ranching across the Midwest and her detailed plans for Cattle Mazes that would integrate crop rotation practices and cattle herding patterns to minimize destruction to the landscape and maximize use of natural resources.
As for the Design (Built) Professional category, three awards were given with Excellence, Honor, and Merit designations. National firm Hoerr Schaudt received an award of Excellence for POST Skylawn, a five-acre urban rooftop park featuring a lawn and organic farm near downtown Houston, TX. The Merit award went to national firm Confluence for their part in building Wilder Bluff Park in Shawnee, KS, a 40-acre park with unique tree-top playground climbing features. This category also highlighted SKS Studio, an international firm with offices in Dubai and Kansas City, by giving them the award of Honor for their work on Southern Dunes luxury resort in Saudi Arabia.
In the Design (Unbuilt) Professional category, Hoerr Schaudt took home two Merit awards for their design for the expansion project at Atlanta Botanical Garden in Georgia as well as a redesigned water playscape planned for Riverside Park in Wichita, KS. SKS Studio also received a Merit award for their plans for the Jabal Uhud Historical Site in Saudi Arabia. Two student groups from Kansas State University also received awards in this category. The first project - designed by Brett Albright, Candence Watson, and Abigail Sachs - earned a Merit award for their design of an urban community space nestled among Sunflower Heights, an apartment building scheduled for development in Wichita, KS. Madisyn Landry, Gabrielle Perdomo, and Jace Moran comprised the second student group that received an award of Honor for their design of The Current, a proposed events space in Downtown Wichita, KS.
In the Special Awards category, Katie Kingery-Page received the Alton Thomas Award for her outstanding efforts in promoting the profession, Little Blue Trace Trail in Jackson County, KS received the MetroGreen Visionary Award for the plans to link urban spaces and rural green spaces, and Linda Hall Library Arboretum received the Kessler Legacy Award for its enduring viability as part of the regional landscape heritage.