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ASLA 2012 Awards: Powell Street Promenade


ASLA announced its 2012 Professional Awards two days ago and I recognized a few of the projects. The awards are given in several categories: General Design, Residential Design, Analysis and Planning, Communications, Research, Collaboration and Community Service. Over several posts I will showcase the landscapes I have seen or can easily visit.  The list includes 200 5th Avenue (NYC), National 9/11 Memorial (NYC), and Powell Street Promenade (San Francisco) which is featured below.

On my way to Union Square in May, I took out my camera as soon as I saw the Powell Street Promenade designed by Hood Design Studio of Oakland, Calif.  The materials and forms stand-out against the traditional materials lining this iconic San Francisco street.  The promenade received a Honor Award in the General Design Category.  Here is the project statement from ASLA website:
On one of the busiest thoroughfares in San Francisco, four city blocks of parallel parking are replaced with a new pedestrian promenade. The Powell Street Promenade provides a 6’2” extension of the existing sidewalk, combining material innovation, technology and urban design into a new landscape that offers refuges for pedestrians amid the street’s busy vehicular and historic cable car traffic. It is the largest example of the city’s “Pavement to Parks” program, which seeks to reclaim swathes of urban land for pedestrian amenities. The project was funded in a public-private partnership with Audi USA and was intended to reflect their notion of ‘A Boldly Designed World’.
I first wrote about the promenade for the "Public space hugs the curb" feature.

If I can find examples of the schoolyards discussed in Sharon Danks's Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, I will highlight the book, too. It received an Honor in the Communications Category.  The Governors Island Park and Public Space Master Plan was given a Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning Category and will be profiled here.  I have photographs of the northern part of the island.

Finally, the list of ASLA 2012 Student Awards is available here.

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