ASLA Honors: Recognizing Outstanding Contributions to the Profession

Charles Kene Okigbo, ASLA, receives the ASLA Emerging Professional Medal at the ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Francisco. / image: Korey Davis Photography for ASLA

The honors awarded by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) each year recognize individuals and organizations for their lifetime achievements and notable contributions to the profession of landscape architecture. Know someone who exemplifies excellence? Nominate them!

Nominations will be accepted through February 28 for the ASLA Medal, ASLA Design Medal, Community Service Awards, Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal, LaGasse Medals, Landscape Architecture Firm Award, Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence, Olmsted Medal, Emerging Professional Medal, and Honorary ASLA Membership.

Any ASLA professional member or ASLA chapter may submit nominations for ASLA honors. Learn more about these prestigious awards below.

Honors nomination categories are:

The ASLA Medal

The ASLA Medal is ASLA’s highest honor, bestowed upon a landscape architect whose lifetime achievements and contributions to the profession have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of the public and the environment.

Recent ASLA Medal winners: Shawn Kelly, FASLA; Darwina Neal, FASLA; Anne Whiston Spirn, FASLA; Carol Franklin FASLA; Linda Jewell, FASLA; Charles Birnbaum, FASLA; Kurt Culbertson, FASLA; M. Paul Friedberg, FASLA; Richard Bell, FASLA

The ASLA Design Medal

The ASLA Design Medal recognizes an individual landscape architect who has produced a body of exceptional design work at a sustained level for a period of at least ten years.

Recent ASLA Design Medal winners: Laura Solano, FASLA; Thomas Oslund, FASLA; Martha Schwartz, FASLA; Douglas Reed, FASLA; Mikyoung Kim, FASLA; Gary Hilderbrand, FASLA; James Burnett, FASLA; Thomas Balsley, FASLA; Andrea Cochran, FASLA

2022 Community Service Award winner Ebru Özer, ASLA / image: Korey Davis Photography for ASLA

The Community Service Awards

The Community Service Award recognizes an individual landscape architect or group of landscape architects who have provided sustained, pro bono service to the community demonstrating sound principles or values of landscape architecture.

Recent Community Service Award winners: Ebru Özer, ASLA; Ernie (Ernest) Wong, FASLA; Glen Dake, FASLA; Kimberlee Douglas, ASLA; John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies; DesignJones, LLC; Martin Barry, ASLA; Randolph Hester Jr., FASLA; William L. Flournoy Jr., FASLA

The ASLA Emerging Professional Medal

This medal recognizes an individual landscape architect who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and considerable contribution to the profession of landscape architecture, the prospective recipient’s community, and/or a firm or design team. Nominees must be a landscape architect within the first 10 years of their career.

Recent Emerging Professional Medal winners: Charles Kene Okigbo, ASLA; Magdalena Aravena, ASLA; Diana Fernandez Bibeau, ASLA

2022 Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal winner Kofi Boone, FASLA / image: Korey Davis Photography for ASLA

The Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal

The Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal recognizes an individual who has made a sustained and significant contribution to landscape architecture education.

Recent Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal winners: Kofi Boone, FASLA; Lolly Tai, FASLA; Stephanie Rolley, FASLA; Dr. Lee-Anne Milburn, FASLA; Patrick Miller, FASLA; Elizabeth K. Meyer, FASLA; Chip Sullivan, ASLA; Carl Steinitz, Hon. ASLA; William Tishler, FASLA

The LaGasse Medals

The LaGasse Medals recognize notable contributions by individuals to the management and conservancy of natural resources and/or public landscapes.

Recent LaGasse Medal winners: Matt Arnn, ASLA; Barrett Kays, FASLA; Dan Wenk; Tom O’Rourke; Julie Hensley, ASLA; David Archambault, Hon. ASLA; Scott Bradley, FASLA; Janette Sadik-Khan, Hon. ASLA; Kenneth Bahlinger, ASLA; Mia Lehrer, FASLA; Gregory Long, Hon. ASLA; Ramiro Villalvazo, ASLA

ASLA 2019 Professional Analysis and Planning Honor Award. McIntire Botanical Garden: Masterplan for Resiliency and Healing, Charlottesville, VA. Mikyoung Kim Design / image: Mikyoung Kim Design

The Landscape Architecture Firm Award

The Landscape Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor that ASLA may bestow on a landscape architecture firm, recognizes firms that have produced bodies of distinguished work influencing the professional practice of landscape architecture.

Recent Landscape Architecture Firm Award winners: Mikyoung Kim Design; STIMSON; James Corner Field Operations; Heritage Landscapes LLC; Andropogon Associates; Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd; Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.; The Office of James Burnett; Oehme van Sweden & Associates

2022 Landscape Architecture Firm Award winner Mikyoung Kim Design / image: Korey Davis Photography for ASLA

The Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence

The Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence recognizes significant contributions to landscape architecture policy, research, education, project planning, and design, or a combination of these items.

Recent Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence winners: Potomac Chapter ASLA Advocacy Committee; Paul Busse; Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF); Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections; Central Park Conservancy; National Park Service; City of Scottsdale Preservation Division and McDowell Sonoran Conservancy; Friends of the High Line

The Olmsted Medal

The Olmsted Medal recognizes individuals, organizations, agencies, or programs outside the profession of landscape architecture for environmental leadership, vision, and stewardship.

Recent Olmsted Medal winners: National Association for Olmsted Parks; NYC Playgrounds Program; The Garden Conservancy; Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI); Forterra; Atlanta BeltLine Inc. and Atlanta BeltLine Partnership; The Hon. Michael Nutter; Design Trust for Public Space; Adrian Benepe, Hon. ASLA

Honorary Membership

Honorary Membership recognizes persons other than landscape architects whose achievements of national or international significance or influence have provided notable service to the profession of landscape architecture.

2022 Honorary Members: Jean Catalano; Dr. Lisa E. Harris, M.D.; and Elizabeth Hebron

All nominations must be submitted as a high resolution PDF and sent via WeTransfer to honorsawards@asla.org by February 28, 2023, 6:00 p.m. (Eastern).

Questions about the nomination process for ASLA honors and honorary membership may be directed to honorsawards@asla.org or (202) 216-2331.

And, just in case you need a recap of all ASLA’s February deadlines, here you go:

Call for Fellows Nominations
Deadline: February 15, 2023

Call for Presentations for the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture
Deadline: February 22, 2023

ASLA 2023 Professional Awards Call for Entries
Deadline to register: February 24, 2023
Deadline for submissions: March 17, 2023

SKILL | ED Workshop: Thoughtful Connections and Growing Impact
Deadline to apply: February 28, 2023

Call for Honors Nominations
Deadline: February 28, 2023

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