Honor Awards

SWA Group Houston
Planning & Analysis

Place-making on an urban scale, the charge is to develop a framework plan and implementation strategies for broad and varied enhancements that will aid in leveraging $450 million committed to flood damage reduction improvements on Brays Bayou, an urban waterway draining approximately 88,000 acres southwest of downtown Houston, Texas. The goal: In 2015, Brays Greenway is a “must see” destination for visitors, major bicycle commuter connection to downtown, restored ecosystem for native flora and fauna, and the everyday playground for 1,500,000 Houstonians. Greenway enhancements will extend along the entire 31-mile project length to create an open space complete with multiuse trails, prairie and forest restoration, habitat creation zones, eco-education centers, new and refurbished pedestrian and vehicular bridges, and water impoundment areas to help minimize flooding and to maximize recreational opportunities along the waterway. SWA is working with a large team of specialists to turn the plan into a physical reality by researching and assisting in funding mechanisms, organizational structures, community coalitions, design concepts, property acquisition, and targeting surplus property, preparing detailed drawings, constructing improvements, among other strategies.

Mesa Design Group
Design / Unrealized / Public

Bryant Park has been held in the public trust since the late 17th century, and after a period of decline in the 1980’s the park has once again become a jewel for New Yorkers. In January 2007, the Bryant Park Corporation initiated a dialogue with the landscape architect to discuss future plans for a topnotch children’s area on par with Frank Gehry’s playground planned for Lower Manhattan’s Battery Park. The conversation culminated with a design charette and contracts with two landscape architecture firms, each competing to develop a vision statement and garden concepts for Bryant Park. Each firm developed two original garden concepts, and a third concept—a design exploration of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 book, The Little Prince, was assigned by the Bryant Park Corporation. The landscape architect presented three design ideas in a visual storybook of hand-drawn pen and ink sketches, Photoshop renderings, SketchUp models, and text. The pen and ink sketches reflect the traditions of the landscape architecture profession, and the computer-generated renderings acknowledge the direction of the profession. The document became a children’s book of sorts with designs that respect the child, share in a quest for knowledge, and offer a safe place to explore in a sometimes-overwhelming world.

Halff & Associates
Planning & Analysis

Completed over a one year period, the Sugar Land Hike and Bike Trails Master Plan exemplifies the City’s continued desire to focus on connectivity and creating a unique and very livable city. It considers neighborhood and homeowner concerns, and places trails carefully where there was no opposition. It is extremely detailed and comprehensive, looking at trail opportunities in every part of the city as well as identifying costs for each segment so that trails can be phased in. It incorporates an extraordinary amount of citizen input, including over 30 meetings with homeowner and key stakeholder groups. This plan incorporates the best qualities of trail planning, in that it is easy to read and use, is very comprehensive, is visionary and yet implementable, and has built widespread citizen support.

TBG Partners
Design / Constructed / Commercial

Located at the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport Redevelopment site in Austin, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas is a total healing environment predicated on the principles of sustainable design. The world’s first hospital to seek LEED Platinum certification, Dell Children’s is a sustainable medical facility effectively linking people with their environment. The design for its signature healing garden merges therapeutic design principles with those that integrate economic, social and environmental components with the built environment. Green building practices incorporated into this healing environment, specifically the three-acre healing garden, reinforce the salutary effects of evidence-based design. The marriage between Dell Children’s therapeutic and sustainable designs provides a
model for future development.

David C. Baldwin
Design / Constructed / Public

The Donley Safety Rest Area is located in the rolling prairies and red sandy soils on U.S. Highway 287 near the town of Hedley in the Texas Panhandle. The facility is part of the Texas Department of Transportation’s effort to make driving a more enjoyable experience in Texas, making the architecture and the landscaping of the roadside area reflect the culture and/or history of the geographic region. The primary theme elements of the design – the Wild West Town, rail cars, and arroyos – are brought together to form a single place for modern travelers to rest and experience the history unique to the region. The project is distinctive in that the landscape architect played a major role in educating thousands of people as to a water conservation system which could be modified for their personal use.

Jacobs Carter Burgess
Design / Constructed / Public

With a rich history dating back to the early 1900s, White Rock Lake Park’s beautiful setting and cultural history make it one of Dallas’ most prominent and popular park destinations. Flag Pole Hill is one of the destination picnicking spots, built during the 1930s WPA era. The landscape architect worked in collaboration with the preservation architect in researching old drawings and details by the National Park Service in order to restore the historic park back to the 1930s time period. For the City of Dallas, this project celebrates the city’s significant historic parks. The incredible social and cultural history at these historic parks is a legacy that needs to be preserved for future generations.

TBG Partners
Design / Constructed / Commercial

Identified by its regional setting, Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa delivers a serene resort experience while maintaining the integrity of the surrounding environment. Using natural features to articulate site architecture and transitions between buildings, the site plan also emphasizes connections to McKinney Roughs Nature Park and the Colorado River reinforcing the significance of nature in Hyatt Lost Pines’ development. Native plants and site features incorporating reclaimed materials further delineate the resort’s regional character while a greywater irrigation system reduces utility of municipal water. Maximizing the site’s natural potential, a lazy river couples with passive guest areas to complement heritage pecans and an 18-hole golf course.

HNTB
Design / Constructed / Public

Leaves Imagination is one of twelve winning entrants to The Dallas Arboretum’s competition exhibit to create The Ultimate Tree House. This unique opportunity to engage and educate the community, showcased designs from local Architects, Landscape Architects and designers to be built amongst the arboretum grounds. The unique parameters of the design submissions called for ideas that were engaging and interactive, to be constructed by the design teams themselves within a modest budget, and encouraged them to use innovative yet available materials.

In dreaming the concept for The Ultimate Tree House, the Landscape Architect engaged the minds of local Elementary School children to discover the essence and spirit of a tree house, and to see if they could go beyond the classic image of a box in a tree. Inspired by the tree’s rounded canopy, twisting bark, and fallen leaves, the Landscape Architect created form, enclosure, scale, movement, and color to create large organic forms that bend and cup and envelop, allowing the “leaves” to define the space.

Mesa Design Group
Design / Constructed / Residential

Landing a project originally designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone and landscape architects Thomas Church and Joseph Lambert throws a contemporary landscape architect into a high profile world of modernism, art, and expectations. The landscape architect collaborated with the architect, interior designer, and lighting designer to restore and upgrade Oak Court, often referred to in Dallas as the Graf or Park Lane House. This International Style residence built in 1957 for businessman Bruno Graf was modeled after the architect’s design for the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. Three years of research, design work, and intensive oversight in the field began a new chapter in the life of Oak Court. The landscape architect worked from Stone’s concepts, viewed his original correspondence with Thomas Church, and brought the design forward with today’s technology and aesthetic while keeping the gracefulness of the original design. The goal of the project is best expressed in an article about Oak Court in a 1959 issue of House Beautiful, “At the core of every beautiful environment are people who understand the art of living. The good life begins with human nobility, with sensitivity, with human imagination.”

Hocker Design Group
Design / Constructed / Residential

The Pool House serves as an urban retreat for an artist and car enthusiast who live next door. The project was an intense collaboration of architect, client, and landscape architect. The central spine of the site is a 6’ ht. glass slag privacy wall. Seamless transitions between the inside and out were extremely important. A minimal plant palette creates mass plantings used for large textural impact and screening for privacy.

TBG Partners Austin
Design / Constructed / Public

Just south of Austin’s burgeoning downtown, 54-acre Town Lake Park is an inimitable urban green space in a community consciously, but quickly converting land into residential, retail and office space. The design is creating a dynamic cultural park that maximizes green space, encourages use and improves neighborhood connectivity in addition to sustaining and enhancing the site’s natural beauty. Implemented in phases, Town Lake Park has evolved through the removal and redefinition of existing infrastructure, and the addition of unique park elements including an interactive fountain and observation hill offering unprecedented views of the Austin skyline from the park. While this park naturally facilitates passive recreation, it is exceptional in its incorporation of inviting, activated elements offering opportunities for active recreation that appeal to a universal demographic.

Schrickel, Rollins & Associates
Townscape, Inc.
Planning & Analysis

University Drive, also known as FM 60, is a state highway with an average traffic count of approximately fifty thousand (50,000) vehicles per day. This high volume of vehicular traffic along with the high volume of pedestrian traffic which passes back and forth between the Texas A&M campus and the Northgate District posed a series of challenges. The final report
provided recommendations to foster an equitable balance between the needs of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians along the Northgate Corridor while creating a unique identity that will be the guide for future development.