ASLA and the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) announced that the Testing Ground: Adapting Fairways to Resilient Barrier Isle Ecosystems in Jekyll Island, by the landscape architecture firm Design Workshop and their client the Jekyll Island Authority has won the ASLA/IFLA 2025 Global Impact Award.

The ASLA/IFLA Global Impact Award is presented to a project in the Analysis and Planning category of the annual ASLA Awards. The award is given to a work of landscape architecture that demonstrates excellence in addressing climate impacts through transformative action, scalable solutions, and adherence to ASLA’s and IFLA’s climate action commitments.

The Jekyll Island restoration project reverses decades of sea-level rise and the loss of biodiversity and cultural landscapes. It transforms an aging golf course into thriving native habitats—restoring longleaf pine savannas, salt marshes, and sweetgrass prairies. In honoring the island’s ecological heritage and resilience, the project sets a national model for coastal restoration and sustainable development.

“Our collaboration with the Jekyll Island Authority and local experts reimagines what former golf courses can be—resilient landscapes that elevate ecology, experience, and cultural connection. Georgia holds one-third of the East Coast’s vital salt marshes; therefore, repurposing degraded and underutilized coastal areas sets a vital national precedent,” said Emily McCoy, Principal-in-Charge at Design Workshop. “By blending science, art, and community insight, the project addresses sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, and freshwater challenges with creativity and purpose.”

In using strategic restoration and adaptive management, the project seeks to enhance biodiversity, climate resilience, and soil health. The landscape architects behind the project removed turfgrass and invasive plants, reintroduced fire-adapted native plants, and designed habitats for target species. Their vision transforms the landscape into interconnected habitats that support threatened and at-risk species while increasing ecosystem stability, showing how landscape architecture can help mitigate the effects of climate change. They also repurposed existing infrastructure to anticipate sea-level rise and increased storm surges.

The restoration is also notable because it honors Jekyll Island’s rich cultural history, especially the Gullah Geechee people. Reintroducing sweetgrass pays homage to their traditional craft, while interpretive trails, art, and educational displays immerse visitors in the island’s complex ecological and cultural narratives and legacies. Elevated boardwalks and a living classroom provide firsthand learning experiences, fostering environmental stewardship and public appreciation for coastal ecosystems.

The Global Impact Award was announced as part of the ASLA 2025 Professional Awards. This year, 35 winners in multiple categories showcase innovation and represent the highest level of achievement in the landscape architecture profession. Read more in the awards press release.

Award recipients and their clients will be honored in person at the awards presentation ceremony at the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture in New Orleans, October 10-13.

Jury: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design & Landmark Award

Jury Chair: Thomas Balsley, FASLA, SWA/Balsley

Members:
C.L. Bohannon, FASLA, University of Virginia School of Architecture
Carol Coletta, Coletta and Company
L. Irene Compadre, ASLA, Arbolope Studio
Adam Greenspan, FASLA, PWP Landscape Architecture
Matt Hickman, Architectural Record
David Hocker, FASLA, Hocker Design Group
Shannon Nichol, FASLA, GGN

Jury: Analysis & Planning ASLA / IFLA Global Impact Award, Research, Communications & Landmark Award

Jury Chair: Diane Fernandez Bibeau, ASLA, City of Boston

Members:
Sierra Bainbridge, ASLA, MASS Design Group
Francisco Brown, Metropolis Magazine
Keiko Tsuruta Cramer, ASLA, WRT
Claire Latané, FASLA, Cal State Poly Pomona / Design with Mental Health in Mind
Adrian Smith, FASLA, City of New York
Bo Yang, FASLA, University of Arizona
Adam Yaracs, AIA, IKM Architecture

IFLA Representative: Monica Pallares Trujillo, IFLA America Region

CELA Representative: Bo Zhang, ASLA, Oklahoma State University

LAF Representative: Signe Nielsen, FASLA, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, P.C.

Thirty-five Professional Award winners represent the highest level of achievement in the landscape architecture profession

ASLA has announced its 2025 Professional Awards. Thirty-five Professional Award winners showcase innovation and represent the highest level of achievement in the landscape architecture profession.

Jury panels representing a broad cross-section of the profession, from the public and private sectors, and academia, select winners each year and are listed below. The 35 winners were chosen out of 463 entries.

The ASLA / International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Global Impact Award is presented to a project in the Analysis and Planning category. The award is given to a work of landscape architecture that demonstrates excellence in addressing climate impacts through transformative action and scalable solutions, and adherence to ASLA’s and IFLA’s climate action commitments. The 2025 award goes to Testing Ground: Adapting Fairways to Resilient Barrier Isle Ecosystems on Jekyll Island in Georgia by Design Workshop and their client, Jekyll Island Authority. From defunct golf course to resilient coastal ecosystem, this project sets a national precedent for adaptive reuse.

The Professional Awards jury also selects a Landmark Award each year for a distinguished landscape architecture project completed between 15 and 50 years ago that retains its original design integrity and contributes many benefits to the surrounding community. This year’s Landmark Award celebrates Restoring the Glory, the Restoration of Forest Park, St. Louis by HOK and their client, Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis. This project led a major restoration of St. Louis’ 1,370-acre Forest Park in 2000, revitalizing historic landmarks, modernizing amenities, and reintroducing natural systems to renew the park as one of America’s most celebrated urban spaces.

“These projects demonstrate that what is good for nature is good for people,” said ASLA President Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA. “Each project paired a high degree of difficulty with technical expertise and seamless design—congrats to all the winners.

“The extraordinary vision and expertise of landscape architecture is on full display with these award-winning projects,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. “Underneath the serene designs beats the heart of biodiversity, carbon capture and the health and well-being of our communities.

Award recipients and their clients will be honored in person at the awards presentation ceremony at the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture in New Orleans, October 10-13.

Award Categories

General Design

Award of Excellence
​​​A Floating Forest: Fish Tail Park in Nanchang City
Nanchang, China
Turenscape

Honor Award
The Beach at Elliott Bay
Seattle, Washington
SurfaceDesign, Inc.

Honor Award
Guitou Wetland Park: Reclaiming Public Space for the Rural Forgotten
Shaoguan City, China
YXDesigners

Honor Award
The Ellen DeGeneres Campus for the Dian Fossey Fund
Kinigi, Rwanda
MASS Design Group + TEN x TEN

Honor Award
More than Human: A Land Bridge for Cultural and Wildlife Connections
San Antonio, Texas
STIMSON

Honor Award
The Shepherd Arts Park: Community, Art, Play
Detroit, Michigan
OSD – Office of Strategy & Design

Honor Award
A Walk in the Woods: Re-Wilding, Experimentation and Pedagogy at UMass
Amherst, Massachusetts
STIMSON

Honor Award
Waterloo Park: Reclaiming Public Space in the Center of Austin
Austin, Texas
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.

Honor Award
Mill 19: A Catalytic Postindustrial Landscape
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
TEN x TEN + D.I.R.T. Studio

Urban Design

Honor Award
Jiaxing Station Park
Zhejiang, China
Z’scape + MAD

Honor Award
Shanghai Underpass Hubs: Bridging Divides, Building Community
Shanghai, China
FISH DESIGN

Honor Award
China Basin Park: A Dynamic Urban Connector
San Francisco, California
SCAPE

Honor Award
Generosity of Place: Water Street Tampa’s Continuous Canopy
Tampa, Florida
Reed Hilderbrand LLC

Honor Award
​​Turning Gray into Green: Meishe River Greenway and Fengxiang Park​
Haikou City, China
Turenscape

Honor Award
UNIT.City: Transforming an Industrial Zone into an Innovation District
Kyiv, Ukraine
KOTSIUBA

Residential Design

Award of Excellence
And the Wild Comes Right up to the Door
Princeton, Massachusetts
STIMSON

Honor Award
The Little Project: Unlocking the Potential of an Everyday Urban Lot
St. Paul, Minnesota
Ping Design LLC

Honor Award
Huckleberry Perch
Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design

Honor Award
Inez Point: Embracing an Old Growth Forest
Whitefish, Montana
Design Workshop, Inc.

Honor Award
Springy Banks
East Hampton, New York
LaGuardia Design Group

Honor Award
Sendero Verde
New York, New York
AECOM LAUD NYC

Honor Award
Norweta
Chicago, Illinois
Site Design Group, Ltd. Honor Award

Analysis & Planning

Award of Excellence
Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park: A Landscape of Healing and Renewal
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Design Collective with Carmichael Associates

Honor Award
Somerville Pollinator Action Plan: A Pollinator’s Guide to City Living
Somerville, Massachusetts
Offshoots, Inc.

Honor Award
Rural Abundance & Vitality: The Chaobai River Basin
Tianjin Municipality, China
Sasaki Associates, Inc

Honor Award
Sea2City: Reimagining Reconciliation in Design and Policy
Vancouver, Canada
Mithun + ONE, and PWL Partnership

Communications

Honor Award
Greening Five Points: Growing a Grassroots Movement in Denver
Denver, Colorado
Design Workshop + Design Workshop Foundation

Honor Award
WORKS with Nature: Low-Carbon Adaptation for a Changing World
Boston, Massachusetts
Climate Positive Design

Honor Award
Playbook for the Pyrocene
SWA Group

Honor Award
Empty Pedestals
Southwestern U.S.
Kofi Boone, FASLA & M. Elen Deming, FASLA

Research

Honor Award
About Time: Adaptive Management for Coastal Salt Marshes
Stone Harbor, New Jersey
University of Pennsylvania Environmental Modeling Lab (EMLab)

Honor Award
Charles River Floating Wetland Pilot Project: Multi-Year Findings
Boston, Massachusetts
Sasaki Associates, Inc + The Hideo Sasaki Foundation and Dr. McNamara Rome

Honor Award
LONGQUAN MOUNTAIN Park: Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research
Sichuan, China
ZAP Associates LLC

Jury: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design & Landmark Award

Jury Chair: Thomas Balsley, FASLA, SWA/Balsley

Members:
C.L. Bohannon, FASLA, University of Virginia School of Architecture
Carol Coletta, Coletta and Company
L. Irene Compadre, ASLA, Arbolope Studio
Adam Greenspan, FASLA, PWP Landscape Architecture
Matt Hickman, Architectural Record
David Hocker, FASLA, Hocker Design Group
Shannon Nichol, FASLA, GGN

Jury: Analysis & Planning ASLA / IFLA Global Impact Award, Research, Communications & Landmark Award

Jury Chair: Diane Fernandez Bibeau, ASLA, City of Boston

Members:
Sierra Bainbridge, ASLA, MASS Design Group
Francisco Brown, Metropolis Magazine
Keiko Tsuruta Cramer, ASLA, WRT
Claire Latané, FASLA, Cal State Poly Pomona / Design with Mental Health in Mind
Adrian Smith, FASLA, City of New York
Bo Yang, FASLA, University of Arizona
Adam Yaracs, AIA, IKM Architecture

IFLA Representative: Monica Pallares Trujillo, IFLA America Region

CELA Representative: Bo Zhang, ASLA, Oklahoma State University

LAF Representative: Signe Nielsen, FASLA, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, P.C.

By Chip Sullivan

For most parts of the country, the Hot August Nights are here. Current climate events, including excessive heat warnings and extreme weather patterns, reinforce the need for cooling landscape designs. There are numerous examples of historical landscape elements that employ passive design to moderate microclimates throughout the seasons. These historical techniques and practices illustrate a deep and intuitive understanding of the forces and processes of nature, from which contemporary designers would benefit.

The purposeful manipulation of garden elements can easily create microclimates that take advantage of the cooling properties of air flow and the high thermal mass of the Earth. While earth itself is not an insulating material, earthen structures do not transfer heat but absorb it, creating cool ambient temperatures. Throughout time, garden designers have sculpted the movement of air and designed air-cooled spaces in a variety of ways to exploit their cooling effects. Adapting these techniques today can reduce our dependence on energy consumptive mechanical air-conditioning.

The Venturi Effect describes how when air is forced through a small opening its velocity increases as it exits the opposite side of the opening. Many historical garden features take advantage of this effect. Air can be directed, funneled, and accelerated with simple landscape features such as seats, allées, arbors, garden pavilions, and porches. Adjustable fabric awnings and screens on the exterior of structures funnel the breezes, shade the interior, and provide a psychologically cooling effect from hearing and seeing the movement of the cloth. Subterranean vaulted corridors like the Roman cryptoporticus served a variety of structural and climate purposes. Integrating passive design elements into contemporary landscapes can reduce energy consumption and help lessen the detrimental effects of changing climates.

Here is an abbreviated chronology of some historical cooling landscape elements:

The sunken corridors, or cryptoportici, at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, Italy (2nd cent.), directed cool air into the rooms above through openings in their arched ceilings (see image above). The passageways could also be inhabited during hot summer months.

Located at the edge of the pond, and facing a wall with latticework apertures, garden seats with open backs capture cool air passing above the water within the Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets (12th cent.), in Suzhou, China.

At the Alcazar in Seville, Spain (13th cent.), an extremely thick wall with small openings contains a window seat facing the prevailing winds and views of the garden.

Hadrian’s precedent was adapted at nearby Villa d’Este (16th cent.), where air cooling cryptoportici were built into the steep hill forming the foundations of the villa. Small openings on the windward side catch the breezes and force the air over a series of cooling fountains before passing through vents to cool the rooms above.

Persian garden pavilions (c. 17th cent.) with fabric awnings attached to south-facing porches could be adjusted to accommodate changing weather conditions. Drawn out over the pool, they acted as air scoops to catch the cool air above the surface of the water, and provided additional shade.

Structure and site work in tandem at Divan Khanah, an 18th century dwelling in Shiraz, Iran. The solid northern wall of the residence blocks winter winds. The one-room-deep building contains an elevated porch open to the southern breezes. And the roof height produces shade in summer and allows the lower angle of the winter sun to penetrate the interior spaces.

The garden walls have small openings along the south, channeling the prevailing summer breezes into the garden. The air is cooled and the dust is filtered out by exterior trees and vegetation. A basin and water jet directly in front of the dwelling adds moisture to the air entering the structure.

The thick earthen walls of the garden grotto at Villa Vizcaya, in Miami, Florida (1914-23), drip with water which splashes on the ground and keeps the space cool in the hot summer.

La Posada Hotel, in Winslow, Arizona (1930), designed by architect Mary Colter, incorporates an astonishing number of historical climate design elements adapted to 20th century lifestyles. Passengers who traveled at that time by train through the parched desert landscape were welcomed into a green oasis with a well. A grove of trees protects the complex from the western sun. Loggias, which are rooms with one or more open sides, and citrus orchards located throughout the property provide comfortable spaces to sit. A sunken garden offers comfort and protection from ferocious dust storms.

Sited above a natural spring and oasis, Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley, California (1922-31), represents another use of historical “green” technology. The structure faces south; the hills to the north block the northern winds. A central courtyard creates a solar pocket and contributes to positive air circulation.

A cryptoporticus directs the air over the spring with powerful fans at the opening to increase air flow into the structure. Water-soaked burlap fabric was draped over the opening to further cool the air. A large air-cooling pool located in front of the structure is similar to those at historical Persian garden pavilions. In addition, the ranch maintained one of the earliest solar-powered water heaters, still in existence today. Power was generated by a Pelton wheel with banks of batteries to store the electricity.

Designers and builders of the past were ingenious at understanding and using the elements of nature to modify the climate, soothe the spirit, and delight the eye. Their techniques can serve as inspiration for a new order of sustainable climate design, grounded in practical and innovative interpretations of historical methods.

Chip Sullivan, FASLA, is Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, College of Environmental Design, University of California at Berkeley. He is co-author of Wisdom of Place: A Guide to Recovering the Sacred Origins of Landscape (with Elizabeth Boults) and author of Field Sketching for Environmental Designers.