We are pleased to introduce you to this year’s WLA Professional Awards Jury. The jury consists of experienced professionals and academics from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom have a deep understanding and appreciation for the world of landscape architecture and design. Each juror was selected for their expertise, integrity, and commitment to excellence. As with every WLA Awards, we seek out jurors from across the world, and we are confident that the 2025 WLA Awards jury will use all their experience and expertise to carefully select the shortlist and eventual winners for 2025.
We welcome the following world-class jury for the 2025 WLA Awards:
Anya Domlesky | Director of Research at SWA Group
Anya Domlesky is an urban designer and landscape architect, currently the Director of Research at SWA Group. She founded and runs XL Lab, the firm’s innovation lab undertaking practice-based research on three drivers of change in the built environment: climate change, emerging technologies, and processes of urbanization. The lab explores near future conditions in the built environment, performs analyses of design performance, experiments with new technologies to create tools for the field, and does topical investigations that address emerging complexities and unprecedented challenges. As a designer, Anya has focused on landscape-driven urban design and environmental planning. She has previously worked at the New York City Department of City Planning, Hood Design, and taught at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and Boston Architectural College.
Philip Dugdale | Associate Principal at Sasaki
To Philip, great design is universal. He is responsible for realizing projects that range from pop-up parklets and plazas to large-scale urban parks and waterfronts. Working across scales, he has a depth of experience leading large, multidisciplinary teams. With a passion for well crafted and inclusive design, Philip’s human-centric approach focuses on the experiential qualities of landscapes. Integrating art, resiliency, and ecology, he is a systems thinker that navigates the complex demands on our public realm with nuance. Philip’s dedication to a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach is at the core of his practice; he encourages open dialogue that promotes exploration and innovation at every stage of the design process. Some of Philip’s notable projects include Los Angeles’ Wilmington Waterfront Promenade, 10 World Trade in Boston’s Seaport District and Western Rail Yards ‘Hudson Green’ in New York.
Jon Hazelwood | Principal & Public Realm Sector Lead at Hassell
Jon is an expert in designing complex public spaces, his ability to think both locally and globally means his approach is wholly grounded in local context and environment, whilst looking beyond this – regionally, nationally and globally – to achieve best practice and new approaches. Over recent years Jon’s focus has been on the importance of Urban Biodiversity. Jon is leading important and industry changing research in Australia along with demonstration projects that are exploring innovative ways our cities can be buzzing with both people and pollinators. This approach is clear on his latest project – the burgeoning transformation of Melbourne’s much-loved Arts Precinct and he recently co-authored the Government Architect NSW Biodiversity in Place Framework
Yan Peng | General Manager of Wide Horizon Landscape Center
Yan Peng started working in real estate in the early 2000s. She began her career as a designer and later became the head of landscape for a well-known real estate company in China. Currently, she serves as the General Manager of WIDE HORIZON LANDSCAPE CENTER and the Vice General Manager of the Hainan Division. Throughout her more than 20 years of professional experience in landscape design, she has maintained a human-oriented approach and believes that the essence of landscape design lies in creating spaces that enhance user experience.
Steven Petit | Creative Director at OMGEVING
Steven Petit is a landscape architect and urban designer who has worked at OMGEVING (BE) since 2004. As creative director, Steven is responsible for the design of OMGEVING’s many landscape and urban design projects. Steven has led numerous successful projects in Belgium, including the re-opening of the river at Zandpoortvest in Mechelen, the ecological urban park Vlasakker in Kortrijk, the renovation of historical Albertpark in Halle and many more. Since 2022, Steven takes the lead of the OMGEVING office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he works with the design team on landscape and urban projects in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) such as the integrated flood risk management study for Thu Duc City in Vietnam and the WWF study for fresh-water NbS in the Mekong subregion.
Ming Zhang | Chief Architect (Landscape Architecture), Tongji Architectural Design Group
Ming, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor of the national talent program, and a tenured professor and doctoral advisor at Tongji University, where he leads the Department of Landscape Architecture at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP). He was honored as one of the inaugural “Shanghai Municipal Engineering Survey and Design Masters.” Zhang is widely recognized for his research and practice in urban built environment regeneration, integrated utilization of urban infrastructure, and the development of urban waterfront public spaces.
Special Juror – Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, is the president, CEO, and founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF).
Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, is the president, CEO, and founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). Prior to creating TCLF, Birnbaum spent fifteen years as the coordinator of the National Park Service Historic Landscape Initiative (HLI) and a decade in private practice in New York City, with a focus on landscape preservation and urban design.
Since taking the helm at the foundation in 2008, Birnbaum’s major projects include the web-based initiative What’s Out There (a searchable database of the nation’s designed landscape heritage) and the creation of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, which includes a $100,000 (USD) award. He has authored and edited numerous publications, including: Experiencing Olmsted: The Enduring Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted’s North American Landscapes (Timber Press, 2022); Shaping the Postwar Landscape, (UVA Press, 2018) and many more books.
He has received numerous awards and recognition for his contributions to landscape architecture, including the ASLA’s Alfred B. LaGasse Medal and President’s Medal, a Fellowship of the ASLA, Rome Prize in Historic Preservation and Conservation, and the ASLA Medal, He also served as a visiting professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, a visiting critic and lecturer at Harvard’s GSD. In 2020, Birnbaum received the Garden Club of America’s Historic Preservation Medal and in 2023, TCLF received ASLA’s Olmsted Medal.
We thank the jurors for volunteering for the 2025 WLA Awards Jury and look forward to seeing this year’s entries.
Find out more about the 2025 WLA Awards – Registrations and Entries close on April 18.
