The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recently announced the winners of the 2026 ASLA Professional Awards. This year, 35 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 450 entries.
The ASLA / International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Global Impact Award is presented to a project in the Analysis & 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 2026 award goes to The Four Coasts Project. The Engineering With Nature–Landscape Architecture (EWN-LA) Design Research Initiative is an interdisciplinary collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop nature-based designs for coastal infrastructure in the San Francisco, Philadelphia, Mobile, and Great Lakes USACE Districts.
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 The Lurie Garden at Millennium Park, by GGN for the Millennium Park Foundation. The three-acre botanical garden opened in 2004 and is now a globally recognized symbol and space for dialogue around urban landscape architecture, native-plant gardening, sustainable horticulture practices, insect-and-bird-focused data and experiments, inclusive public garden programming, and equitable training and recruitment into landscape and horticultural fields.
The jury members included
Professional Awards Jury Members: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design & Landmark Award
Chair: Adam Greenspan, FASLA – PWP Landscape Architecture
Patricia Akinaga, Intl ASLA – Patricia Akinaga Landscape Architecture, Ecological Urbanism & Environmental Planning
Sarah Fitzgerald, ASLA
Cory Henry – Atelier Cory Henry
Dena Kennett, ASLA – National Park Service
Christopher LaGuardia, FASLA – LaGuardia Design Group
Katharine Logan – Architectural Record
Allyson Mendenhall, FASLA – Sasaki Associates
Douglas Williams, Ph.D., ASLA – University of Illinois
Professional Awards Jury Members: Analysis & Planning, ASLA / IFLA Global Impact Award, Research, Communications & Landmark Award
Chair: Sierra Bainbridge, ASLA – MASS Design Group
David Archambault, Hon. ASLA – 45th Chairman, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Valerie Aymer, ASLA – Cornell University
Connie (YunHui) Fan, FASLA – LSG Landscape Architecture
Jane Margolies – The New York Times
Wendy Miller, FASLA – Wendy Miller Landscape Architecture
Thomas Oslund, FASLA – 02 Design
Cassandra Rice, ASLA – Perkins&Will
Thomas Tavella, FASLA – Tavella Design Group
Joining the Professional Awards Jury in the Analysis & Planning / IFLA Global Impact Award Category
Mónica Pallares-Trujillo – IFLA Representative – IFLA Americas Region
Joining the Professional Awards Jury in the Research Category
Dimond Kirk, ASLA – CELA Representative – University of Arizona
Allison Harvey, ASLA – LAF Representative – OJB Landscape Architecture
Award recipients and their clients will be honored in person at the Awards Ceremony at the ASLA 2026 Conference on Landscape Architecture in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, September 16.
The winners are as follows:
Analysis & Planning
Award of Excellence
H2Oquirrh: Regional Water Reform for a Resilient Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake, Utah
Design Workshop
Client: Wasatch Front Regional Council, Salt Lake County
ASLA / IFLA Global Impact Award
The Four Coasts Project
Auburn University
EWN-LA Design Research Initiative
Client: Engineering with Nature
Honor Awards
Allensworth Rising: Rural Resilience in California’s Freedom Colony
Allensworth, California
Alison B. Hirsch, Landscape Design/Planning/History and the Landscape Justice Initiative
Client: Allensworth Progressive Association
City of Hope Medical Campus Resilient Healing Landscape Master Plan
Hongjoo Kim Landscape Architects, Inc
Client: City of Hope
Houston Resilience Hub Network Master Plan
SWA Group – Houston
Client: City of Houston
Where Industry Meets the Tide: A New Horizon for Huangshi Bay
Yantai, Shandong Province
Sasaki Associates, Inc.- Boston
Client: Yantai Huang-Bohai New District Natural Resources Planning Bureau
Communications
Award of Excellence
Details and Materials for Resilient Sites: A Climate Positive Approach
Meg Calkins, FASLA
Honor Awards
Lo—TEK Water. A Field Guide for TEKnology
Julia Watson, ASLA
Sediment Strategies: Considerations and Case Studies for Beneficial Use
Tess Ruswick, ASLA
General Design
Award of Excellence
Kìwekì Point – Returning to One’s Homeland
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc.
Client: National Capital Commission (NCC)
Honor Awards
Houston Arboretum & Nature Center
Houston, Texas
Design Workshop & Reed Hilderbrand
Client: Houston Arboretum & Nature Center
Gathering Place
Tulsa, TX
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.
Client: George Kaiser Family Foundation, Gathering Place, River Parks Authority, City of Tulsa
As Far as One Can See: Indigenous Knowledges and Design at Tekakapimǝk
Portland, ME
Reed Hilderbrand LLC – Cambridge
Client: Elliotsville Foundation
Harbor Wetland: Green Infrastructure as Civic Space
Baltimore, Maryland
Ayers Saint Gross
Client: National Aquarium
SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park Public Realm
Los Angeles, California
Studio-MLA
Client: The Kroenke Group
Hudson River Park’s Gansevoort Peninsula: Engaging with the River
New York, New York
Field Operations – New York
Client: Hudson River Park Trust
Guangming Dadingling Mountain Forest Greenway: Bridging City and Canopy
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
SWA Group – Shanghai
Client: OCT Guangming (Shenzhen) Investment Co., Ltd.; China Construction Shenzhen Third Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd.
Industrial Revival – From Pollution to Regeneration
Guilin, Guangxi, China
P Landscape Co., Ltd.
Client: Integral
Civic Park at Hemisfair
San Antonio, Texas
GGN
Client: City of San Antonio Public Works Department and Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation
Research
Honor Award
Heat Health: A pre- and 5-year post-occupancy thermal case study.
SmithGroup – Ann Arbor
Residential Design
Award of Excellence
Datum House
West Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Wagner Hodgson
Honor Awards
Designed to Disappear: Hayden House
Aspen, Colorado
Design Workshop
Thunder River Residence: Restoration at the Riparian Edge
Rocky Mountains, Colorado
Design Workshop
Peak House
Dali, Yunnan, China
Z’scape
Client: Xun Ba
A Flowing Stream through Aranya Community
Qinhuangdao, Hebei, China
Z’scape
Client: Aranya
The Havens: A Landscape-Led LEED Platinum Neighborhood
Snowmass Village, Colorado
Design Workshop
Client: East West Partners
Moss Rock
Healdsburg, California
GROUND STUDIO
Bella Oaks
Napa, California
Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture
Pamet Bend
Truro, Massachusetts
LeBlanc Jones Landscape Architects, Inc
Urban Design
Award of Excellence
The Gowanus Lowlands: From Industrial Canal to New Civic Landscape
Brooklyn, New York
SCAPE
Client: Gowanus Canal Conservancy; The Domain Companies; Property Markets Group; Monadnock Development
Honor Awards
Restoring a River, Reconnecting a City: Longgang River Blueway
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
SWA Group, Houston Office; Shenzhen BLY Landscape, Architecture and Planning Design Institute Co., Ltd.; HASSELL Studio Pty Ltd (Hassell); Shenzhen Urban Planning & Design Institute Co., Ltd. (UPDIS)
Client: Water Authority of Shenzhen Municipality, Water Authority of Longgang District, and China Resources Land Shenzhen
Highland Bridge: Healing through Hydrology
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Confluence
Client: Ryan Companies, City of Saint Paul, Capitol Region Watershed
Seattle Waterfront Park: Reconnecting the City to the Bay
Field Operations – New York
Client: City of Seattle Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects
The Plaza and Cellars at Pearl Brewery
San Antonio, Texas
The University of Texas at Austin
Client: Silver Ventures, Inc.
The Landmark Award
Lurie Garden at Millennium Park
Chicago, Illinois
GGN
Client: Millennium Park Foundation
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