The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), announced that it will establish an international landscape architecture prize (“Prize”) to be conferred biennially. This is the first and only international landscape architecture prize that includes a US$100,000 monetary award. In addition, the Prize features two years of related public engagement activities to honor a living practitioner, collaborative or team for their creative, courageous, and visionary work in the field of landscape architecture. The inaugural Prize will be awarded in 2021.
TCLF board co-chair Joan Shafran and her husband Rob Haimes have generously provided a lead gift of US$1 million to underwrite the Prize, which was collectively matched by the rest of the board and other donors, launching a US$4.5 million fundraising campaign to endow it in perpetuity.
“Landscape architecture is one of the most complex and, arguably, the least understood art forms. It challenges practitioners to be design innovators often while spanning the arts and sciences in addressing many of the most pressing social, environmental, and cultural issues in contemporary society,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, TCLF’s founder, president, and CEO. “We are grateful for the leadership provided by Joan Shafran and Rob Haimes in supporting this prize, which aims to raise the visibility of the field and its practitioners.”
Landscape architects, artists, architects, planners, urban designers, and others who have designed a significant body of landscape-architectural projects are eligible for this award.
The Prize will examine the state of landscape architecture through the honoree’s practice, showcasing how landscape architecture and its practitioners are transforming the public realm by addressing social, ecological, cultural, environmental, and other challenges in their work.
The honoree will be chosen in a multi-layered process, including a year-long nomination period followed with selection by a five-person jury comprised of internationally prominent landscape architects, artists, educators, designers, and others. The Prize will be administered by TCLF and overseen by an independent curator. The jury members and curator will be announced in the coming months.
Image Credit: Portland Open Space Sequence, Ira Keller Forecourt Fountain, Portland, OR, 2016. Designed by Lawrence Halprin with Angela Danadjieva, 1970. Photo © Jeremy Bittermann, courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation.