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.
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are part of a tragic and ongoing list of deaths, often occurring at the hands of law enforcement, due to racist hatred and stereotypes that perpetuate harm, harassment, and the killing of Black Americans, of which there appears to be no end. We recognize that there is an infrastructure of disenfranchisement in our country’s social systems, that sanctions hate in our communities and stifles the opportunities afforded to Black people.
There are fundamental questions that we as part of the design community have to address: how has the design of the built environment contributed to the perpetuation of these injustices and how can we contribute to ending these ingrained social and economic harms? From this moment forward our team is committed to actively serving as an ally to the Black community, toward racial, social and economic justice. We know that to move forward we must contribute to the development of public policies that empower Black and other minority voices and seek knowledge and understanding. We have to cross barriers between each other and across communities to achieve a common goal of justice and the pursuit of happiness and equity for all.
In this moment of protest, OLIN is re-examining our capacity to do more. There is much for us to do but here are our first actions:
OLIN will donate $10,000 to Black-led organizations that foster social and economic justice for Black and other oppressed communities.
OLIN, in consultation with Black leaders in Landscape Architecture will develop Black and minority hiring goals to increase minority leadership in our own studio and in our field of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design.
OLIN will invest in our employees to build a more inclusive and aware organization that is prepared to confront and redress these deeply disturbing ingrained patterns.
Through OLIN Labs, the research component of our practice, we are launching research initiatives to expand the capacity of our practice to combat disparities caused by racial and ethnic disenfranchisement.
These long-standing societal failures are compounded in particular with the intensification of climate change, because through generations of racist practices we have forced so many minority communities into harm's way. These social, environmental, and economic inequalities in our landscape will only intensify if we do nothing. We must act quickly with compassion and fortitude to support those communities suffering as a result of discriminatory policies. OLIN is committed to design that brings value to all, not just the privileged, and which strengthens economically challenged communities. These are the first steps to grow our commitments to help heal the traumas perpetuated by racism, but we understand the journey has just started.
Join OLIN at the 2019 Conference on Landscape Architecture
#ASLA2019 is here! We're thrilled to be in San Diego for this year's Conference on Landscape Architecture. We have much to celebrate, from the release of Fresh Water, co-authored by Associate Jessica Henson, to our Partner Hallie Boyce's elevation to the esteemed Council of Fellows. Check out our guide below—we look forward to seeing you there!
EDUCATION SESSIONS
Puerto Rico: Holding on to the Future/Aferrado al Futuro
Saturday 11/16, 11:00am - 12:15pm
Richard Roark, ASLA, LEED AP/SITES AP, Partner
The future is under consideration in Puerto Rico. An unprecedented level of federal recovery funds have been allocated to the island, but the outcomes will be told through the priorities and plans that follow. This will be an inflection point that will have profound impacts on land, water, infrastructure, and the diverse communities who hold the future of the island.
Fact Check: Assessing Landscape Performance in Research and Practice
Sunday 11/17, 9:00am - 10:00am
Skip Graffam, FASLA, Partner
Amid today’s science denial and “alternative facts,” it is imperative for landscape architects to advocate and prove design impacts with evidence. This panel shares experience in evaluating design and assessing landscape performance through collaborative research in practice, focusing on post-occupancy evaluation of environmental, social, and economic performance.
The ReImagined River: Fifty-One Miles of Connected Open Space
Monday 11/18, 8:00am - 9:30am
Jessica Henson, ASLA, Associate
One million people live within a mile of the Los Angeles River, which currently serves a singular purpose of flood control. Los Angeles County is reimagining the river as multibenefit and updating its 1996 master plan. This session explores the project, which is integrating robust community engagement, politics, hydrology, and design.
Integrating Ecology and Technology to Maximize Beneficial Impacts
Monday 11/18, 8:30am - 10:00am
Judy Venonsky, ASLA, Associate / Living Systems Specialist
Plant choices have far-reaching environmental and social impacts, and innovative solutions are found in the synapses between ecology and digital technology. The potential exists for modeling natural systems with parametric design by creating a common language between these two disciplines, unleashing the power of both for all landscape architects.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Landscape Architecture Foundation Annual Benefit
Friday 11/15, 7:00pm - 10:30pm
Join the Landscape Architecture Foundation at the Prado at Balboa Park for its 34th Annual Benefit! Join top designers and leaders from practice, academia, and industry, including OLIN CEO and Partner Lucinda Sanders, FASLA, Co-Founder and Facilitator for LAF's Fellowship for Leadership and Innovation, for this festive evening with local food and amazing company. The benefit will celebrate the 2019 LAF Olmsted Scholars and showcase the recipients of the $25,000 LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership and their transformative projects.
Fresh Water Author Meet-and-Greet at the EXPO
Saturday 11/16, 9:30am - 11:00am
OLIN Associate Jessica Henson, ASLA, and Mary Pat McGuire, ASLA, Principal Designer at The Water Lab and Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at UIUC, will be signing copies of their new book Fresh Water. The geographical and hydrosocial context of the major inland North American watersheds—the Mississippi, the Great Lakes Basin-St. Lawrence and the Nelson—remains an under-explored field for design research. Fresh Water assembles scholarly papers from designers that reframe complex issues of industrial agriculture, energy production, urban sewersheds, water law, transportation tributaries, and cross-watershed diversions, to propose new inland water futures.
ASLA Council of Fellows Investiture Dinner
Sunday 11/17, 7:00pm
Join friends and colleagues for an elegant evening to honor the newest members of the ASLA Council of Fellows, including OLIN Partner Hallie Boyce. Fellowship is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and recognizes the contributions of these individuals to their profession and society at large based on their works, leadership and management, knowledge, and service.