31-Aug-18 – The professional association of the nation’s designers of outdoor areas has included the Chicago Riverwalk in its awards this year for the best of landscape architecture.

The American Society of Landscape Architects is giving the Riverwalk an Honor Award, the second-highest distinction in the category of General Design.

The award is for the stretch of Riverwalk from State Street to Franklin Street that was completed in 2016. It recognizes the Boston-based design firm Sasaki and Ross Barney Architects of Chicago.

(Left) Floating gardens along the Chicago Riverwalk between LaSalle and Wells Streets. Photos by Steven Dahlman.

The Riverwalk missed out on the category’s highest award to Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85-acre park on the Brooklyn side of the East River in New York. The park is credited with revitalizing 1.3 miles of waterfront.

A total of 25 winners of ASLA 2018 Professional Awards were announced on Thursday.

Selected from 368 entries, the awards, says ASLA, “recognize the best of landscape architecture in the general design, analysis and planning, communications, research, and residential design categories from the United States and around the world.”

Seven other projects received Honor Awards in the same category, including Iqaluit Municipal Cemetery in northern Canada, Duke University’s West Campus in Durham, North Carolina, and the Wurtele Upper Garden at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Winners will receive their awards at ASLA’s annual meeting in Philadelphia on October 22.