Design School Members Nab Awards

The American Society of Landscape Architects yesterday awarded two Graduate School of Design faculty members with Excellence in General Design, the highest award the society bestows.

Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture Michael Van Valkenburgh and Design Critic in Landscape Architectire Michael J. Blier each coordinated projects with their design firms to win the two awards of excellence.

The recipients were selected from a pool of 500 nominees.

Van Valkenburgh and his firm, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, are receiving the award for a seven-year landscaping plan at Wellesley College. The firm is in the midst of redesigning 13.5 acres of the Wellesley campus.

According to the society’s website, the plan involves the restoration of the campus’s Alumnae Valley—for the last several years a parking lot—to its former natural landscape and function as part of a natural hydrological system.

The firm removed tons of toxic soil and raised the entire level of the valley six feet. Van Valkenburgh Associates has completed four projects at Wellesley to date, and six projects are currently underway.

The award judges, comprised of the society’s members, praised Van Valkenburgh’s design for its “excellent planning and execution.”

“This project totally transforms the campus and sends a very strong environmental message,” the jury said.

Blier’s firm, Landworks Studio, was founded in 1996 and is being recognized for its work on Court Square Press Courtyard, a garden for residents of a South Boston condominium.

The design of the garden combines disjointed pathways with lighted benches and three layers of bamboo and fern to create a “collection of fragmented views,” said project designer Letitia Tormay. The view of the garden is entirely different from any window in the six stories of condominiums surrounding the garden.

Tormay said the project was particularly challenging both because of the unusual dimensions with which she had to work and the necessity of including emergency escape routes and building utilities for the condominium.

Tormay worked hands-on with Blier throughout the entire design and construction process. “This is the most prestigious award our firm has received,” she said.

The American Society of Landscape Architects, founded in 1899, is a national organization representing over 16,600 landscape architects in 48 professional chapters and 68 student chapters. Since 1968, a jury of the society’s members has met annually to bestow their Professional Awards, honoring “the best in landscape architecture from around the globe.”

This is the first Award of Excellence for both Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Landworks Studio.