We are thrilled to announce that Dilworth Park has earned the first-ever Award of Excellence in Urban Design from the American Society of Landscape Architects! The Urban Design category was launched this year to recognize projects that mediate between social equity, economic viability, infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and beautiful place-making in the public and private realm. The Award of Excellence is the highest honor offered in each of ASLA’s award categories, with the potential of only one project in each category earning this distinguished accolade each year.
Dilworth Park at Philadelphia’s City Hall is a lively and contemporary embodiment of William Penn’s vision for Philadelphia as a ‘Green Country Town.’ Today the park is an inclusive hub of Philadelphia’s life outdoors but for decades this was not the case. Prior to renovation Dilworth was an uninviting and inaccessible maze of raised and sunken terraces, hidden passageways, and defunct fountains surrounded by gloomy malnourished trees. The opportunity for change raised the park, both physically and metaphorically, to the prominence of its location at the foot of Philadelphia’s City Hall. The new park provides universal accessibility by bringing the entire site to street level, and encourages use throughout the day with a variety of programming. The park features a generous lawn, a café, ample seating amidst green groves of native plantings, a flexible plaza integrated with a dynamic and interactive fountain, and Pulse, a dramatic, kinetic public artwork which uses mist and light to illustrate the movement of the transit networks below-ground, simultaneously evoking the site’s history as the city’s first modern water distribution system and Philadelphia’s rich industrial legacy. The park functions as a 2.5-acre green roof, built entirely atop the nexus of Philadelphia’s multi-modal transit system. Through these interwoven layers of landscape, infrastructure, architecture, programming, and civic expression, Dilworth Park serves as a connective gateway to all of Philly’s neighborhoods and a welcoming, all-season spot for relaxation and public recreation.
Dilworth Park was the result of a deeply collaborative, community-focused process, rooted in the vision of Philadelphia’s Center City District, led by Paul Levy. Award-winning Philadelphia-based consultancy Urban Engineers served as the prime consultant for this project, which necessitated careful navigation of dense layers of infrastructure. OLIN was the landscape architect for the project, led by Partners Susan K. Weiler, FASLA, and Richard Roark, ASLA, LEED/SITES AP, and supported by a multi-generational team of landscape architects and designers. KieranTimberlake, the celebrated architecture office, crafted the park’s iconic arched glass headhouses and the cafe, all of which provide access to the subway and trolley lines that converge directly below the site. CMS Collaborative worked with OLIN and Urban Engineers to design the custom, fully programmable scrim fountain, and world-renowned artist Janet Echelman created Pulse, which she describes as "a living X-ray of the city's circulatory system." Many other consultants contributed to the completion of the project, including CVM for structural engineering, Arup for lighting design, Lynch & Associates for irrigation systems design, and more. A full list of consultants and product suppliers can be found on the ASLA awards website here.
“ASLA Professional Awards acknowledge exceptional projects that define and move the profession of landscape architecture forward,” said Curt Millay, Executive Secretary of the American Society of Landscape Architects. “We congratulate OLIN on this incredible achievement.”
The award will be presented during a virtual Professional Awards Ceremony later in the fall. Dilworth Park is one of 31 projects out of more than 550 applicants to be recognized across seven categories: general design, residential design, urban design, analysis & planning, communications, research, and The Landmark Award.
