Highlighting LAEP’s Award for Excellence in Landscape Design
Funded by the Narayanan Family Foundation, the Excellence in Landscape Design Award supports an individual or team of undergraduate and/or graduate student(s) to undertake a research project. These projects explore innovation in landscape architectural design relating to environmental issues such as sea level rise, green infrastructure, climate change, wetland restoration, and/or environmental justice.
2022 Recipient
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I am a graduate student at UC Berkeley in the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning pursuing my MLA Degree. My primary interests are public space design, brownfield/superfund site restoration, and cultural landscapes. As a Graduate Student Researcher for Dr. Kristina Hill, I study groundwater contamination along post-industrial coastal landscapes in marginalized. Prior to graduate school, I worked for the City of Raleigh’s Parks Design Division on transforming a former mental health hospital into the city’s new central park, Dorothea Dix Park. I managed the creek restoration and landfill remediation projects and undertook extensive public engagement work during the park master plan process. I am passionate about environmental justice-focused projects.
Project Details
- Project Abstract
- Research Partnerships
My research investigated the imminent issue of soil contaminant mobilization on Bay Area shoreline Superfund and brownfield sites provoked by climate-change-induced groundwater rise. For the research, I worked with Dr. Kristina Hill, Director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban & Regional Development and Associate Professor of Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, and Environmental Planning. The sites we studied have soil contamination from past industrial uses including WWII shipbuilding, petrochemical plants, pesticide manufacturing and more. In many of these areas, the soil contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs), harmful metals such as arsenic, and pesticides such as PBCs and DDT, all of which have detrimental effects on bay area aquatic biota and the humans who live adjacent to these sites. Many people are aware that these contaminated shoreline sites will eventually become inundated with sea-level rise, however minimal research has studied the underlying threat of groundwater rise, which has a potentially faster timeline.
As the sea level rises, it pushes up groundwater, which will mobilize soil contaminants from below. As little as four inches of groundwater rise has the potential to exacerbate existing issues. These mobilized contaminants can seep into the bay ecosystem and travel inland to freshwater tributaries via more porous geologic material such as historic alluvial levees. Additionally, VOCs can travel up sewer lines and further into the surrounding bay land.
My research utilized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identify future “hot spot” areas of concern where contaminant plumes and rising groundwater will intersect, and potential directions of contaminant spread. Dr. Kristina Hill and I built a Bay-Wide study model using contaminant and monitoring well data from the EPA Superfund Sites, California State Water Resources Control Board, and the Department of Toxic Substances overlaid with groundwater head data from the USGS, historic shoreline maps, historic tributary data from the San Francisco Estuaries Institute (SFEI), geologic maps, subsidence data, and sewer line data. Our goal in running bay-wide model simulations is to sound the alarm bells to spur policy change for extensive clean-up of contaminated shoreline sites.
I built upon my ELD-funded research by applying for and receiving the Bay Area Water Quality Fellowship which has allowed Dr. Hill and me to continue to work with a team of researchers from Utah State University and the University of New Castle to publish a bay-wide and national-scale paper. The paper is in process.
2022 Award Recipient
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Hannah is a second-year masters student in the Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning program and is interested in hydrology, geomorphology, and multi-benefit engineering approaches for water resource management and ecosystem health. Hannah is excited by the practice of river and stream restoration, especially as related to reconsidering traditional engineering methods, such as channelization and damming, and the concept of restoration as a component of social justice through the returning of Indigenous lands. Hannah received her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering with a concentration in sustainable engineering from Barrett, the Honors College, at Arizona State University, where she was involved with the university chapter of Engineers Without Borders in developing a sustainable pipeline system for the Varoti Khurd community just outside of Pune, India. Hannah received her Engineer-in-Training (EIT) certification and worked as a project engineer on commercial site development projects in the Bay Area for several years before beginning her graduate studies at UC Berkeley in 2021.
Project Details
- Project Abstract
- Research Partnerships
As a desert river flowing from the Sierra Madre Mountains in the Sky Islands Ecoregion of Sonora, Mexico, to Cochise County, Arizona, the San Pedro River is both extremely dynamic in terms of flow regime and provides key riparian habitat linkage for many migrating species, such as the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. In 2020, the border wall was extended across the San Pedro River and its floodplain, and a series of manually-operated gates were installed at the river’s main channel. This study focused on the hydrological implications of the border wall and floodgates at the San Pedro River through two-dimensional flow modeling of various storm events and border conditions using the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Hydrologic Engineering Center’s (CEIWR-HEC) River Analysis System (HEC-RAS).
I compared overbank flows and flooding reactions of the San Pedro River to stages of debris accumulation ranging from (1) clear gates, (2) gates obstructed by 3 feet of debris buildup, and (3) gates obstructed by 6 feet of debris buildup. This simple hydraulic analysis demonstrates that a rigid structure built across a dynamic river is likely to dam up the river in flood, causing some flow to go eastward around the gated section, potentially causing erosion in previously unaffected areas. This study was conducted using available data, with limitations in resolution, arising in part from the trans-national nature of the river basin and river course. The San Pedro is one example of a river that crosses the US-MX border; the issue of flow interference posed by the border wall presumably affects other rivers that flow across the border. This study calls into question the wisdom of the engineered wall and gate structure implemented along the border at the San Pedro River crossing, and by implication at other such river crossings.
Hannah worked with two organizations to complete her research:
2022 Award Recipient
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MLA 2022“Design with Typhoons”
Vanessa graduated from the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley with a dual master degree in Landscape Architecture and City Planning in 2022. She has worked at the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) since her final year of master study and also currently works part-time at Gehl. Vanessa is passionate about challenging the frontier of interdisciplinary innovations and collaborations to advance urban health and resilience. Apart from her training as an environmental planner and landscape designer, she is also skilled at UI/UX design, immersive 3D visualization, and other means of creative communication. She has worked on diverse projects ranging from landscape restoration in Hong Kong which entered as one of the finalists of the Landscape Institute Awards 2020, research on debris flows in Montecito, CA which won the first prize of ASFPM Student Paper Competition 2021, typhoon-resilient landscape design in Hong Kong which won the 2020 Excellence in Landscape Design Award at UC Berkeley, and various SFEI publications such as Ecological Horticulture at the Presidio and Making Nature’s City Toolkit.
Project Details
- Project Abstract
The “constructed” character of urban forests in Hong Kong, traced back to the eidetic history of deforestation and exotic plantation programs, underpins their intrinsically low resilience against typhoons and adaptability to the local, non-equilibrium temporal dynamics. These woodlands across the city are constructed habitats initially for protecting the city’s water infrastructure. On the same land where the indigenous woodlands once thrived and were later cleared between around 1000 and 1700 stands a mix of regenerating secondary forests and monocultural exotic plantations, which were largely cultivated during the British colonial era. In the absence of competition against later successional species with strong stems and roots, the existing young secondary forests dominated by fast growing, soft-wooded species remain vulnerable to the destruction of intense typhoons.
The project proposes a multi-scalar, process-based approach for building climate resilience in Hong Kong under the influence of frequent, intense typhoons. To decode the dynamic, recurring influences of typhoons, the project develops a multi-scalar approach, using city-level change detection modeling and landscape archetype classification to inform process-based, site-level design strategies. While the project focuses on the most recent Super-Typhoon Mangkhut, the presented approach can be partly automated for analyzing any typhoon events in the city. The resulting interventions are envisioned to adapt to the repetitive influences of typhoons and to seek opportunities out of typhoon-induced destructions to gradually replant, rebuild and realign efforts for building climate resilience.
2020 Award Recipient
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BA Landscape Architecture 2021“Parklet”
Alyssa graduated from UC Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and currently works in long range urban and regional planning for communities throughout the state of California. Immediately after graduation, she worked as a field researcher for a NIH-funded study of playgrounds throughout the country with playground design firm Studio Ludo and Kaiser Permanente. Currently, she remains focused on strategies to make cities more inclusive, climate resilient, and playful places to live through active mobility infrastructure and affordable housing advocacy; since graduating, she’s co-authored the Oakland General Plan Climate Vulnerability Analysis, authored 25 affordable housing case studies for the San Diego Association of Governments, and helped organize community engagement efforts for communities throughout the state.
Project Details
- Project Abstract
Access to quality outdoor play spaces is deeply rooted in issues of environmental justice. For children living in urban areas, playgrounds provide crucial but often limited opportunities to engage in developmentally valuable forms of outdoor play. Despite highly regulated design standards dictating contemporary playground design in the United States, many children’s play environments continue to neglect the needs of children with nonconforming identities and backgrounds.
This project was inspired by observations of the constraints children experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic when playgrounds were indefinitely closed. Avoiding an emphasis on permanent infrastructure or specific physical space needs, I examined potential adaptations of urban environments available to families irrespective of playground proximity. In the spirit of play and the interest of testing physical solutions, I developed a physical prototype– “Parklet”– responding to issues I identified during exploratory research. Designed with multiple dimensions of accessibility in mind, Parklet takes into account physical accessibility barriers as well as potential socio-economic barriers that families may confront when accessing developmentally valuable outdoor play environments.
This research focused on the role of designers and stakeholders in creating developmentally valuable, inclusive play spaces at a range of scales. Rooted in a multidisciplinary research framework, Parklet is an exploratory prototype intended to provide an accessible, materially sustainable, and developmentally valuable outdoor play resources for children and families. Bearing in mind the inherent limitations of physical playspace production, the Parklet newspaper is a scale-agnostic alternative to physical parks and playgrounds.
Visit the project website for additional information and images.
Community Partnerships:
Gil Tract Farm, Malcolm X Elementary School, Berkeley Youth Alternatives
2019 Award Recipients
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MLA 2020“City Permeable: Urban Landscapes and Plant Migration in a Changing Climate”
The jury found this project very timely in its investigation of urban plant migrations, in a clearly articulated proposal which argues that “changes to the form and management of urban landscapes have the potential to significantly improve their connectivity to regional ecologies.” This is an ambitious project that allows designers and planners to reimagine city-planning in the face of climate-change.
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PH.D Student – Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning“Modeling Anthropogenic Soil Flows: Landform-Based Approaches to Sea Level Rise Adaptation”
This innovative project seeks to “ build greater knowledge of how excavated soils are currently being managed; and to develop insight into how management practices might be improved for the purposes of Sea-level Rise adaptation.” The jury lauded the cyclic thinking embedded in exploring excavated construction soil ‘waste’ as a critical element in making land-building sea-level rise solutions actually work.
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MLA 2020“The Agency of Landscape Architecture in Decolonization: Participatory Design for Winnemum-Wintu Sacred Geography, Ecology, and Identity in the Upper Sacramento River Watershed”
This proposal looks at an under-studied topic of Native American understanding of landscapes and the very representation of such an understanding. The proposal is well-written, capturing both the larger picture as well as details of the project. The jury was impressed by the applicant’s strong background preparation for undertaking this work.
2017 Award Recipient
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MLA 2018Kate declares, “As a newly graduated landscape designer enamored of design research, I am grateful for the opportunity to carry my interests beyond Wurster Hall, to bring this knowledge to relevant decision makers, researchers, and stakeholders. I send my sincere thanks to the Narayanan Family Foundation and ELD committee, and to my excellent advisors who encouraged research that has profoundly shaped my curiosities, interests, and goals as I start a career as a landscape architect.”
Project Details
- Project Abstract
- Research Partnerships
“Groundwater Level Rise and Novel Contamination Pathways”
This research examines sea level-induced groundwater rise as a vector of environmental contamination in the San Francisco Bay. The encroachment of groundwater upon buried hazardous artifacts and materials introduces a pressing dimension of predicted overall water quality decline within sea level rise adaptation. As groundwater advances in a lens above saltwater, it will infiltrate brownfield plumes, unlined dump sites, underground storage tanks, and cracked pipelines. Contaminants susceptible to groundwater migration will exchange with sewers, traveling into housing and businesses, and eventually emerge with a rising water table.
This research maps, defines, and projects, vulnerability to groundwater inundation and toxicity in the San Francisco Bay. A case study in West Oakland anticipates district-scale impacts and speculates on alternative futures. By offering strategies of mitigation through design, the posit landscape architecture as a critical practice in mediating the disparate challenges presented by such complex sites. As new research connecting the projective consequences and geographies of rising groundwater pollution with opportunities for landscape adaptation, this project calls for further examination of groundwater impacts as a pretext to sea level rise planning.
The Excellence in Landscape Design award initially supported this MLA thesis research, but it also spurred continued interest and work beyond Kate’s original pursuit. She will attend conferences to engage with the multiple disciplines intersecting in this project, addressing fields of soil science, geophysics, and geoengineering in addition to the more familiar circles of landscape architecture. She will present her work to agencies and offices around the Bay Area, alerting designers to emergent problems and considerations in sea level rise adaptation.
2017 Award Recipient
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MLA 2018The ELD award served as an opportunity to bridge Alison’s various interests in both urban planning and landscape architecture. As she states, “It provided me the support to ask an ambitious question, find the ideal case study site to explore that question second, and enable travel to Lehigh Valley, visit various sites important to this industrial system, and interview local professionals working on this issue. It was a invaluable opportunity that will undoubtedly guide my thinking and pursuits in the future.”
Project Details
- Project Abstract
- Research Partnerships
“E-Commerce Country: Cataloging Conditions and Speculating Futures at Sties of the On-Demand Urban Economy”
n 2017, over twenty major retailers filed for bankruptcy; in comparison, the e-commerce sector grew by 16%. Within this context, the online retail industry is fundamentally reshaping consumer infrastructural systems by eliminating the need for a persistent storefront presence and instead relying upon a distributed network of warehousing and logistics. As an essential node within this system, online distribution centers are often situated just outside of major cities, transforming once somewhat disconnected places into a vital link of the on-demand urban economy. With e-commerce distribution warehouses requiring three times the amount of space of traditional brick-and-mortar retail warehouses, communities experiencing this growth are suddenly presented with a significant change to their local economies and spatial configuration. In this emerging, ubiquitous—and yet, still hidden—condition of the logistics landscape, E-Commerce Country catalogs system-wide conditions and connections while also proposing site-specific interventions at sites of online distribution center zones and clusters. Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania’s dense configuration of online warehousing provided an ideal case study to examine how ecommerce functions as a regional system, especially in relation to Philadelphia and New York. This regional analysis then informed a series of landscape design proposals to simultaneously address both immediate and long-term concerns at the quickly-growing warehousing district surrounding the Lehigh Valley International Airport. In the immediate term, this includes addressing socio-environmental issues such as air, noise, and light pollution, which affect both workers and neighbors. In the long-term, these design proposals aim to anticipate both a loss of workers due to automation in addition to the potential loss of the warehousing industry and buildings altogether.
The findings from this thesis intend to prompt greater appreciation of this rapidly transforming economic system. The ELD award served as an opportunity to bridge Alison’s various interests in both urban planning and landscape architecture.
2017 Award Recipient
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“This research award allowed me the invaluable opportunity to pursue an independent research project in tandem with the landscape architecture curriculum. Presenting the project to the selection jury and gathering critical feedback will guide future research on this topic in my final year in the program.”
Project Details
- Project Abstract
“Energy Efficiency in Hybrid Landscape Design”
This landscape project demonstrated the incorporation of photovoltaic technology into public spaces at the urban micro-scale. It explored the relationship between vegetation and solar panels, and identified opportunities to site solar arrays in communities that could benefit from the energy produced through the shared renewables market. The project researched the solar potential in California’s central and coastal regions and analyzed current vegetation conditions and land management practices under utility-scale solar arrays. It then developed a palette of regional grasses, shrubs and vines that could thrive in part to full shade conditions, and identified spatial capacity to site solar arrays in three cities with varied climates and urban conditions. Finally, the project designed an under-utilized lot as a site to test the combination of photovoltaic materials and structures with vegetation at the urban park scale. The proposed design envisioned an engaging community space that enhanced existing ecological systems, and added a new later of solar productivity to the landscape. This project encourages us to think critically about how and where we generate energy through renewable energy systems. It explores how landscape design can both extend renewable energy access to under-resourced communities, and simultaneously improve urban ecological systems.
