World Landscape Architecture is very proud that the WLA Awards have grown to have two juries for the 2021 WLA Awards. For this year’s awards, we have separate Professional and Student Awards juries.
There were over 25 nominations for the juries from across the world with extensive expertise and knowledge. For the Student Awards, we have focused on selecting jurors currently working as academics at education institutions. We are lucky also to have several professionals with a diverse range of backgrounds and locations. Below you can find out more about the juries:
Professional Awards Jury
Christopher Fannin ASLA
Senior Principal, Managing Director – InSite – A division of KEO International Consultants
Chris is an urban design, master planning and landscape architecture practitioner with a global career that spans over 25 years. As Senior Principal and MD of InSite, an allied practice of KEO International Consultants, he is responsible for setting the design agenda of the studios as well as overseeing the holistic operations of the interdisciplinary practice.
From large-scale land use and master planning developments to detail landscape designs, Chris has focused on bringing legible form to complex ecological, social and programmatic processes through elegant designs. At InSite, Chris leverages the talent within his team with studios in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Riyadh and Porto in combination with the KEO family of disciplines to mould a grounded and dynamic practice that brings site specific solutions to clients, communities and the challenging environment within which InSite’s portfolio resides.
Claire Agre, PLA, ASLA
Principal and Cofounder of Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design.
Claire Agre is Cofounder of Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design. Prior to starting her own practice, Claire was Principal-in-charge at West 8 New York and project designer at Hargreaves Associates. Claire brings humor, passion, and conceptual clarity to her work and has led design for a diverse portfolio of projects, including Governors Island, the Master Plan for Longwood Gardens and its Main Fountain Garden Revitalization, The Giving Delta, Houston Botanic Garden, Duke University Sculpture Park, The New Orleans Riverfront Master Plan, and the 2012 London Olympics. Claire holds an MLA from the Harvard University and degrees in Environmental Science and Policy and Latin American Studies from Duke University.
Martin Koenig, CMLI
Associate Director of Martha Schwartz Partners (MSP)
Martin Koenig is a chartered landscape architect and trained horticulturalist. He is Associate Director of Martha Schwartz Partners (MSP) where he oversees the development of national and international projects. Martin also leads the business development and day-to-day management of the London office.
Martin has worked worldwide as part of inter-disciplinary teams to develop landscape projects of various scopes and scales, and throughout all work stages. His interests lie in the exploration of landscape and urban spaces in relation to their geographical location, climate, cultural influences, and morphological composition. He aims to accomplish holistic and innovative designs, merging local and social aspects to create unique, lasting, and meaningful spaces. As part of MSP’s Climate Change Task Force, Martin also focuses on topics of climate resiliency and adaptation, where he explores opportunities to integrate green-blue infrastructure and climate-positive design strategies into the design of everyday urban environments.
Monika Nair, CMLI(Design)UK
Practice Head, Landscape, Urban Design & Planning – Atkins India
Monika is Chartered Landscape Architect with extensive experience in urban development projects in the UK, India, Middle East and the
APAC through a career spanning 18 years. She currently holds dual roles in her organisation. She is the Practice Manager for the Landscape, Urban Design & Planning practice which she has developed over the last
eight years. She also is a Delivery Manager for multidisciplinary
urban development projects undertaken by Atkins.
Monika has been the recipient of the New Professional of the
Year 2019 for her commendable contribution to the profession. She has been on the Judging Panel of the UK Landscape Institute Awards
It has always been her endeavour to reduce the gap between” theory” and” practice”, thus focusing on creating result-oriented strategic plans for the benefit of the project and in turn the community. She is also actively involved in the development of the Landscape profession in India.
Simon David
Founder & Creative Director of OSD Outside
Simon David is the Founder & Creative Director of OSD Outside, a mission-driven, multidisciplinary firm based in New York City that focuses on the needs of a rapidly changing planet. OSD has received numerous awards for their work, most recently from Azure magazine, Rethinking the Future, and Architects’ Newspaper for their work addressing the future of food, with Gotham Greens, and how the pandemic can become an opportunity to rethink our cities through their work with the Flatiron & NoMad District in NYC. Simon is a landscape architect, urban designer, and trained architect, who also regularly teaches design studios focused on resiliency, public space, mobility, food systems, and climate adaptation.
Student Awards Jury
Dima Rachid
Founding Partner at studiolibani;
Part-time Lecturer at the Department of Landscape Architecture at the American University of Beirut;
Dima is a landscape architect, urbanist, and design researcher. She is the founding partner at studiolibani, recently listed as 2020 Best Young Practices by Archdaily. Dima has been teaching at the American University of Beirut for the past three years. Prior to moving to Lebanon, she worked and taught in Southern California. Dima’s research, writing and publications are at the intersection of design, ecology, and infrastructure with special focus on pushing forward the landscape approach in addressing contemporary urban challenges. Dima received her master’s in landscape architecture form the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where she graduated with distinction and was awarded the ASLA Award for Excellence
Jill Desimini
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
Harvard GSD
Jill Desimini is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and teaches in the core studio sequence.
Desimini is trained in landscape architecture and architecture and has practiced professionally in both fields. Prior to joining the full-time faculty at the GSD, she taught in the second term core studio of the MLA Program at the GSD and at Northeastern University’s School of Architecture. She was formerly Senior Associate at Stoss Landscape Urbanism, where she managed the firm’s efforts on the Lower Don Lands in Toronto, the Bass River Park on Cape Cod, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Her work has received numerous awards including a finalist entry in the Van Alen Urban Voids competition, a Narendra Juneja Medal and an ASLA certificate from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Selected Professions Fellowship from the American Association of University Women. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Brown University.
Jun Zhai
Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Founding Principle, E.A.S. T.Scape
Professor Jun Zhai is a Chinese American landscape architect, urban theorist, and educator. Professor Zhai is the chair of the Landscape Architecture Department at Soochow University’s School of Architecture. Professor Zhai is also an award-winning landscape architect with over 25 years of professional experience both in New York and China and the Founding Principal of E.A.S.T.scape based in Suzhou whose focus is on the re-establishment of ecological open space systems within the dense
urban area. He is also very interested in design and cultural issues, especially when “old” meets “new” in the vast Chinese urban context. Professor Zhai’s teaching and research examines the relations between
landscape, ecology, and contemporary urbanism, and focuses on the relationships between ecological thinking and design practices. He is the author of numerous books and articles on these subjects, and his
writing has been published in peer-reviewed Journal papers in China. He studied with Ian McHarg and James Corner at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his MLA.
Phoebe Lickwar
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture University of Texas at Austin
Founding Principal of FORGE Landscape Architecture
Phoebe Lickwar is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and founding Principal of the award-winning critical practice FORGE Landscape Architecture. She is a registered landscape architect with over 15 years of experience in the design and construction of culturally significant gardens and civic landscapes, including the National World War I Memorial at Pershing Park in Washington D.C., the Newport Beach Civic Center Park, the Glenstone Museum, and the National September 11 Memorial in New York. Lickwar’s research and practice investigate the powerful connection between the vegetal world and human well-being, with a focus on the integration of agroecology in contemporary urban environments. She is co-author of the book Farmscape: The Design of Productive Landscapes (Routledge 2020).
Simon M. Bussiere
Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture
School of Architecture, University of Hawaii at Mānoa
Simon Bussiere is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM). His studios and seminars focus on exploring ecological patterns and processes as the key drivers of urban, community and landscape form. He currently teaches courses in landscape architecture, environmental design and architecture programs, including urban ecological analysis, design foundations, design communication and experimental modes of representation. He contributes regularly as a writing and design reviewer for professional and academic organizations around the globe including CELA, DCA, NCBDS and ACSA. Simon is President of the Hawai‘i Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Second Vice-President of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Editor at the European Landworks Cultural Association and Editor of Digital Media for the Design Communications Association. He is a Principal Investigator at the University of Hawai‘i Community Design Center, (UHCDC) and holds visiting appointments at the University of Nagasaki in Japan, the University of Utah Asia Campus in South Korea, and is a member of the Global Track Faculty with UHM & Tongji University in Shanghai.
WLA thanks all the jurors for applying and volunteering their time for judging the Professional and Student Awards.
Find out more about the WLA Awards at https://worldlandscapearchitect.com/2021-wla-awards-call-for-entries/
Registrations for the WLA Awards close on March 19.
