Weitzman Students Sweep 2024 ASLA Awards

Nearly two dozen Weitzman students were recognized for design excellence in the 2024 ASLA Student Awards. The honorees were announced earlier this month after being selected by juries for the American Society of Landscape Architects, the professional association for landscape architects in the US.

According to the report on the results published in Landscape Architecture Magazine, which features a Weitzman project on the cover, the winners earned praise from the juries “for thinking globally and providing ambitious solutions to overwhelming long-term challenges.”

Weitzman students earned a total of six awards in four categories—residential design, urban design, analysis and planning, and communications—the most for any university represented. ASLA received a total of 382 project submissions from students worldwide.

Of Eco-booster—a proposal to transform vulnerable neighborhoods in the historic city center of Ibagué, Colombia, by providing sustainable housing, integrating green armatures, and enhancing connectivities—the jury commended the project for its “robust analysis of a challenging sloping site with vulnerable environmental issues and a practical, economic, community-building solution.”

The winning projects were produced in 2023-2024 studios at Weitzman and included:

Residential Design
Ibagué, Tolima, Republic of Colombia
Students: Peiye Yang; Xinyi Zhang; Keling Ni; Xu Lian; Zoe Goldman
Faculty Advisor: David Gouverneur, Associate Professor of Practice

Urban Design
Siaya Eco-Park: A Vision for a Green, Inclusive Hub in Siaya’s Heart
Students: Johanny Bonilla Jimenez; Michelle Syl Yeng Chan; Caroline Schoeller; Leechen Zhu
Faculty Advisors: David Gouverneur; Catherine Seavitt, Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, Co-executive Director, The Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism & Ecology; Thabo Lenneiye, Managing Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Fund, Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

Stitching Kingston, Community to Coast
Students: Zhao Zicheng; Jiewen Hu
Faculty Advisors: Lucinda Sanders, Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture; Trevor Lee, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture; Demetrios Staurinos, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture

Analysis and Planning
Sprouting from the Scar: Seed - Biochar - Reforestation
Students: Andrew Reichenbach; Shuyi Hao
Faculty Advisor: Nicholas Pevzner, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture

Communications
Designing a Green New Deal at Greenland’s Resource Frontier
Students: Yining Zhu; Yuanyi Cen; Keith Scheideler; Shanyun Hu; Ying Zhang; Maura McDaniel; Shengqian Wang; Günay Mammadova; Jiachen Sun; Jixuan Guo
Faculty Advisor: Billy Fleming, Wilks Family Director of The Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism & Ecology

Forest Futures: A Collaborative Game for Forest Health
Students: Oliver Atwood; Caz Gagne; Elliot Bullen
Faculty Advisors: Nicholas Pevzner

The winning projects and commentary from the juries are featured in the September 2024 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine and the ASLA website.