2022 Potomac Chapter Professional Awards
Each year, the Potomac Chapter ASLA honors the best in landscape architecture in the DC metropolitan area through a juried awards program.
As was the case last year, all members and applicants will be notified in advance of the names of the winning firms and projects (although not the level of the award).
All awards will be presented at our Awards Gala in May, 2022.
You’ll see the link to click to apply at the end of these details.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR ENTRY:
The Potomac Chapter awards program is open to ASLA member individuals, firms, agencies, and academic institutions. Entries should either be designed by offices located in the DC metropolitan area OR be projects that are located in the DC metropolitan area.
2022 AWARD WINNERS RECEIVE:
- Recognition at the Annual Awards Gala and framed certificate afterwards
- Award entry posted on potomacasla.org
- Award entry featured in exhibition at the District Architectural Center, which will either be virtual again this year or in person over the summer
ENTRY CATEGORIES:
RESIDENTIAL DESIGN
Recognizes site-specific works of landscape architecture for single-family residential use. Professional entries in this category must be built. Typical entries include: Individual single-family residential or individual townhome projects; activity areas for cooking, entertaining, recreation, or relaxation; sustainable landscape applications; new construction or renovation projects; affordable landscape concepts and innovations; and more.
DESIGN- BUILT
Recognizes site specific works of landscape architecture or urban design. Professional entries in this category must be completed and realized.
DESIGN- UNBUILT
Recognizes innovative vision within landscape architecture or urban design for projects that have not been constructed.
ANALYSIS, PLANNING, AND URBAN DESIGN
Recognizes the wide variety of professional activities that lead, guide, and evaluate landscape architecture design. Entries are not required to be built or implemented.
COMMUNICATIONS AND RESEARCH
Recognizes print, digital, video, and audio media that communicates landscape architecture principles, techniques, technologies, history, or theory.
SOCIAL IMPACT
Recognizes public interest projects designed to directly benefit social equality, humanitarian, community or environmental needs and causes; or processes that are community-centered and engage a broad and comprehensive group of stakeholders.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Recognizes projects focused on historic preservation, restoration, rehabilitation, and projects related to the inventory of historic resources.
PUBLIC SECTOR POLICY
Recognizes landscape architecture achievements by governmental, quasi-public or non-profit organizations, firms or individuals working in the public sector. Designed to recognize individuals or agencies whose regulatory works improve ecosystem services and human well-being. Because this is a newer category, more details are below and applicants can submit additional materials.
If your project fits in another category, that is the category in which you should submit, even if you work in the public sector. This category is especially focused on things like policies and guidelines that don’t fit in another awards category.
Typical entries in Public Sector Policy include: policies, codes or guidelines that improve the outdoor environment (such as water quality, soil conservation, native habitat restoration, expanded urban tree canopy, physical and/or mental fitness, public health and safety, for example), or other contributions to the success of any type of ecological / landscape / urban planning project that has proven to have had a positive impact on environmental health, through leadership from the public sector.
Criteria: Show data to demonstrate continuous progress over at least three years towards meeting a project’s landscape performance goals, as evaluated based on measurement of improvements over baseline conditions. Baseline data may be data collected prior to the project, or policy implementation, or from data gathered from the first year of the project or policy.
Presentation Materials: Provide a narrative outlining the goal of the work and how the implementation of the requirements has met the proposed outcomes. Submit codes, guidelines, technical manuals or similar documents or weblinks. Provide supplemental information showing the data, such as infographics (e.g. baseline and performance data), and other supporting images to demonstrate the success of the project. We recommend you take time to create a strong narrative and metric graphics, because most juries will not take the time to read lengthy manuals.
ENTRY FEE:
Potomac Chapter Member: $155 per entry
Non-Potomac Chapter ASLA Member: $275 per entry
(includes one membership to Potomac Chapter)
DEADLINE: Friday, March 18, 2022 by 11:59 PM ET
AWARD DESCRIPTIONS:
MERIT AWARD
Recognition for superior professional accomplishment.
HONOR AWARD
An esteemed award for excellence in landscape architecture.
PRESIDENT’S AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Highest award of recognition for a distinguished landscape architecture project stands out above all the rest.
EVALUATION CRITERIA for all categories EXCEPT Public Sector Policy:
Quality of Work: 25 pts.
Originality of Thought/Approach/Methodology: 20 pts.
Clear Intent: 20 pts.
Relationship to Physical or Cultural Context: 10 pts.
Stewardship and Sustainability: 10 pts.
High Performance or Pioneering Use: 10 pts.
Overall Quality of Submission: 5 pts.
EVALUATION CRITERIA for Public Sector Policy:
Graphic Representation (clear & well-designed communication of data): 30pts.
Quality of Data (data points & measurements are quantifiable and numerous enough to show compliance): 20pts.
Value to ecosystem services (soils, water, vegetation, human well-being): 25pts
Success of applied Metrics/Code (Do the codes/guidelines show continuous improvements to meet desired outcome?): 25pts.
JURY MEMBERS: Indiana Chapter ASLA
AWARD SELECTION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Potomac Chapter members and applicants will be notified before the Gala of the winning firms and projects (although not the level of the awards). This year’s Awards Gala will be held in May.
SUBMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS:
- The project submission process (application, project uploads, & payment) can be completed securely online by going to: https://potomacasla.slideroom.com/#/login/program/65286
- All submissions are limited to 15 pages and 10MB maximum. The 15-page limit INCLUDES the Title & Narrative.
- If a submission includes any reference to the design firm or team on any material submitted other than the Entry Form it will be excluded.
- All submissions are to include the following information in the following order.
Title: project name, location, awards category
Project Narrative: In 200 words address as much of the following as possible.
- Purpose and Scope
- Project Requirements,
- Role of the Landscape Architect
- Project Approach/Methodology
- Design Intent
- Physical or Cultural Context
- Stewardship and Sustainability
- Landscape Performance
- Pioneering Use of Technology or Materials
- Effect on Public Perception of the Profession
Illustrations:
- Captions limited to 50 words.
- Recommended: 3000 pixels x 2400 pixels, minimum 300 ppi. Unlike ASLA National awards, multiple images/page are allowed.
Supplemental Materials ONLY APPLICABLE FOR COMMUNICATIONS/RESEARCH and PUBLIC SECTOR POLICY CATEGORIES.
- One page Project Summary, in addition to the Project Narrative. Project Summary may include hyperlinks to original content.
- Original media (print, video, audio, etc.) with cumulative limit of 10MB maximum.
- By submitting an application, the applicant assures that all copyright holders have consented to the submissions and use of images for any Potomac Chapter multimedia, print or digital publications, presentations and online archive.
You can download these instructions here: 2022 Potomac Chapter Call for Entries Requirements.
SLIDEROOM:
Entrants will need to create an account on SlideRoom prior to filling out the Awards Entry Form and Submittal Package. A different email address is required for each entry.
If you log in with your SlideRoom account from a previous year, be sure to select the current year’s program from the “Directory” to the left side of your Dashboard.
Click here to submit your project.
Questions? Email info@potomacasla.org.