“NYC summers are getting hotter, making it vital to design livable cities for all.” The ASLA New York Chapter has organized a walking tour of how to map urban heat in Brooklyn for Climate Week NYC, one of the world’s largest climate gatherings.

The tour — Building a Collective Story of North Brooklyn Heat Experience — is co-organized by ASLA New York, North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, Pratt Institute Sustainable Environmental Systems program, Pratt Institute Center for Community Development, and KOMPAN.

The walking tour is on Friday, September 26 from noon to 2pm EST at McGolrick Park in Greenpoint, Broolyn. The tour is free for ASLA members and $10 for non-members.

“We’ll explore how city features—from pavement materials to wall colors—shape micro-climates on a single block. Participants will measure heat perceptions, learn thermal comfort assessment techniques, and reflect on designing a habitable city for human and non-human residents. We’ll also consider how McGolrick Park’s tree canopy supports community well-being now and in the future.”

Register today

And explore more events co-organized by ASLA NY during Climate Week NYC, including the free, immersive workshop — Combating Coastal Flooding Through Green & Hybrid Infrastructure.

Thirty-four Student Award winners elevate the future of the landscape architecture profession

ASLA has announced its 2025 Student Awards. Winners showcase innovation and represent the highest level of achievement among the future of the profession. All project winners and their schools are listed below.

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 34 winners were chosen out of 502 entries.

“What an incredible display of talent,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. “I’m so proud of the talent and advocacy at the heart of these projects because they reflect a deep commitment to tackle the thorny issues communities face.”

Award recipients will be honored in person at the awards presentation ceremony during the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture in New Orleans, LA, on Saturday, October 11.

Award Categories

General Design

Award of Excellence
Opaque Ground: Reimagining Human-Soil Relations in the Lower
Don University of Toronto

Honor Award
Working with Beaver Engineers: First Step in Restoring Eco-Corridors Beijing Forestry University
Beijing Forestry University, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture and University of California, Berkeley

Honor Award
From Ruins to Roots: Healing through Unity, Growing for the Future
University of Pennsylvania

Honor Award
From River to Seabed: Vertical Solutions for Sea Barren Ground
Kyung Hee University

Honor Award
Riverfront Stitch: Mending Cleveland’s Industrial Valley
Kent State University

Honor Award
Seeding the Shoreline: A Living Armature for Pengambengan’s Future
Xi’an University of Architecture & Technology and Sichuan Agricultural University

Honor Award
Reclaimed Edges: Uncovering History, Designing Resilient Futures
Harvard University

Honor Award
After the Ashes
University of Oregon

Honor Award
Soundscapes as Ecology: Designing for Natural Rhythms
Ohio State University

Residential Design

Award of Excellence
Monsoon Memory: Khmer Hydro-Traditionalism for Community Resilience
Soochow University

Urban Design

Award of Excellence
Kipuka Wai” Weaving Ahupua’a Wisdom for the Hawaiian Goby’s Voyage
Soochow University

Honor Award
Mitigating Seoul’s Half-Basement Floods: Green Justice in Action
Soochow University

Honor Award
Lugar de Encontro/ Landscape of Encounters
University of Pennsylvania

Honor Award
The Oasis Effect: Reclaiming Tunis’s Indigenous Water Systems
Harvard University

Student Collaboration

Award of Excellence
Re-Wetting Grossbeeren
Harvard University

Honor Award
THE URBAN FARM EXPANSION: Design by the Community for the Community
University of Oregon

Honor Award
TREES ALIVE! Techniques, Details, Traditions
Illinois Institute of Technology and The University of Tokyo Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park: A Landscape of Healing and Renewal

Analysis & Planning

Award of Excellence
Stabilizing Thawing Ground: Meltwater Management in Utqiagvik, Alaska
University of Virginia

Honor Award
Reweaving the Water Networks: Casarabe Wisdom for the Llanos de Mojos
Southwest Jiaotong University, Xi’an University of Architecture & Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Sichuan Agricultural University

Honor Award
Auwai Revived: Integrated Ecological Strategies from Mountains to Sea
Beijing Forestry University and Fujian University of Technology

Honor Award
Beyond the Channel: Reconnecting a Resilient Arroyo Seco
California State Polytechnic University at Pomona

Honor Award
Heart of the Great Lakes
Hefei University of Technology, Chongqing Jiaotong University, and Soochow University

Honor Award
Power Lines and Beating Hearts: The Body Electric in the Energy Future
Harvard University

Honor Award
Floods & Beasts: Adaptation Strategies for Sundarbans Border Communities
Shanghai University, Beijing Forestry University, and Chongqing University

Honor Award
The Haunt of Mobile: Reconnecting Down the Bay
Auburn University

Communications

Award of Excellence
Stewards of Pyrran: A Game of Fire, Care, and Cooperation
University of California, Davis

Honor Award
Shifting Terrains: Glacial Debris and Flow
University of Virginia

Honor Award
SOLARPUNK: Recovering the Lost Art of Landscape
University of British Columbia

Honor Award
Way to the Park
Macau University of Science and Technology About Time: Adaptive Management for Coastal Salt Marshes

Research

Award of Excellence
HAIL: Healthy Aging through Intergenerational Living
Texas A&M University

Honor Award
Overlooked Carbon Contributions of Urban Green Spaces
Beijing Forestry University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Honor Award
Reimagining Residential Landscapes in the Pacific Palisades
Purdue University

Student Community Service

Award of Excellence
Stimulating the Senses, A Calming Retreat in a Skilled Nursing Setting
University of Washington

Honor Award
Nasi Ulam Forest Garden as a Living Lab
National University of Singapore

The 2025 Student Awards Juries

Jury: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design & Student Collaboration

Jury Chair: Lauren Stimson, ASLA, STIMSON

Members:
Diana Budds, Fast Company, Architect’s Paper.
Nathaniel Cormier, ASLA, RIOS
Swati Khimesra, ASLA, Surface 678
John Leys, Sherwood Design Engineers
Nancy Monteith, ASLA, City of Salt Lake City
Ebru Ӧzer, FASLA, Florida International University
Janet Rosenberg, FASLA, Janet Rosenberg & Studio
Brett Weidl, ASLA, MKSK

Jury: Analysis & Planning, Research, Communications & Student Community Service

Jury Chair: Haley Blakeman, FASLA, Moffat and Nichol

Members:
Kewiji Asakura, FASLA, Asakura Robinson – Houston
Nina Chase, ASLA, Merritt Chase
Gonzalo Cruz, ASLA, AECOM
David Goldberg, ASLA, Penn State University
Michael Tunte, ASLA, City of Aspen
Claire Weisz, Hon ASLA, FAIA, WXY
Marcel Wilson, ASLA, Bionic

Research on climate change, biodiversity loss, and systemic inequities is now being undermined. But there are still “crevices, nooks, and crannies” where important independent research is being conducted. “We need to nurture, protect, and enable these ‘petri dishes,’ no matter how small,” said Lucinda Sanders, FASLA, CEO of OLIN, during the kick-off of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF)’s latest Leadership and Innovation Symposium.

“We need to super-commit and do the hard work. We need to be action-oriented and advocates for healing. Respect, dignity, and love are foundational to our survival.”

Sanders introduced the latest class of six LAF Leadership and Innovation Fellows. They outlined the result of their year-long research, envisioning positive new futures in the areas of infrastructure, policy, public engagement, and agriculture:

Embodied carbon emissions from the extraction, manufacturing, and construction of materials like concrete, steel, and foam can result in enormous carbon footprints for a landscape architecture projects. Planting trees and plants sequesters carbon but can take a long time to offset emissions generated from building landscapes. Through her research, Anya Domlesky, ASLA, PLA, director of research at SWA Group, a landscape architecture and urban design firm, found some landscapes can take up to 200 years to become carbon neutral.

The next stage of “deep decarbonization” of the built environment must focus on reusing infrastructure, saving the emissions embedded in existing concrete and steel. Domlesky thinks ports, bridges, rail lines, roads, highways, and river infrastructure can all be adapted. “We can graft new uses on existing transportation infrastructure.” This kind of adaptation can “be climate action, if done right.”

She offered examples: an old bridge was remodeled to include a bike way; another was modified to expand space just for pedestrians. Urban forms can be redesigned to increase liveability and active transportation. The vast spaces now used by cars, including roadways and parking lots, take up 13-39 percent of cities’ areas, totaling more than 4,208 square feet (391 meters) per person. “A 10 percent reduction in roadways alone would generate $28 billion in value.”

A new policy framework is needed to undo widespread damage to rivers and water bodies, explained Aaron Hernandez, ASLA, an associate with the landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand. Focusing on Toronto, Canada, he explained how the rights of industry have trumped those of nature for centuries, leading to a concrete landscape, extreme flooding, and chemical pollution.

Hernandez said transformational policy changes are needed, rooted in the legal recognition of the “agency of nature.” Rights for rivers, forests, and entire ecosystems can enable new forms of governance, restoring stewardship rights to Indigenous peoples.

The rights of nature movement started in the 1970s. In recent years, rivers in New Zealand, the U.S., and Colombia have achieved legal personhood. In 2021, the Mutuhekau Shipu, also known as the Magpie River, in Canada was granted legal rights by the Innu First Nation of Canada. It now has the right to flow, maintain its biodiversity, be free of pollution, and sue. In Toronto, Hernandez thinks rights for the Rouge National Urban Park would be a way to launch the ecological restoration of the greater Toronto region. But “a river is a community,” so restoration must be rooted in reciprocal relationships with the land and Indigenous peoples.

To have greater impact, landscape architecture projects should be designed as learning labs, with curricula for K-12 educators, argued Brad Howe, ASLA, PLA, principal at SCAPE Landscape Architecture. Parks can become an “extension of the classroom” and “provide immersive STEM education.” Teaching the community about landscapes will grow the next generation of stewards and advocates.

SCAPE has been applying a “design, build, teach” approach with its Living Breakwaters in Staten Island, New York, and Tom Lee Park in Memphis, Tennessee. Both projects have “ready to use curricula” for teachers, developed with educational partners.

For Tom Lee Park, Howe and the team at SCAPE, along with design partner Studio Gang, worked with students and educators early in the design process to develop accessible site elements that teach students about place making, ecological design, biodiversity, climate resilience, and more. “We planted over 1,000 trees, with a diverse canopy, including 10 different species of oaks.” The park is now used to teach all 3rd and 9th grade students in Memphis each year about “how trees are important to ecosystems, including birds and insects”; how they provide shade and cooling, using heat readings. And “we designed pollinator labs at the edge of the river.”

Landscape-based education can take many forms — from self-guided tours to field trips and full integration into classroom learning. Howe said landscape architects are “not experts in curricula” but can be a bridge between clients and educators, enable collaboration, and “shape the learning context.”