Honor Bound, Merits Earned
Arizona Chapter ASLA 2009 Annual Awards
A seamless pool addition to a modernist masterpiece, a gallery for the display of cactus and succulents, and a city park-and-ride center were among the honored projects during the most recent Arizona Chapter ASLA awards competition.
The awards program recognized projects in categories that included design, planning and analysis, and student work. Numerous special awards were also presented, including to Angela Dye, FASLA, of A. Dye Design in Phoenix as Outstanding Arizona Landscape Architect; to Paula Kornegay of Kornegay Design in Phoenix as Friend of AzASLA; and to James Coffman of Coffman Studio in Tempe and Tim Le of AAA Landscape in Phoenix and Tucson as AzASLA Members of the Year.
Here are the design award winners.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
AND PRESIDENT’S AWARD
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
HONOR AWARDS
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE AND PRESIDENT’S AWARD
Sonoran Landscape Laboratory
Tucson, Arizona
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc.
Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas
When the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture built a new facility where architecture, landscape and planning students could work together in an integrated studio environment, the construction also afforded an opportunity to create a combined entry plaza and outdoor learning environment.
 The space, called the Sonoran Landscape Laboratory, features a perforated bridge spanning a restored arroyo that serves as the entry plaza, a sunken outdoor classroom with permeable paving that also serves to detain water during rainstorms and a riparian pond that’s home to endangered fish species. A 50-foot-high scrim on the side of the building encourages the upward growth of drought-tolerant vines, which help to shade the structure. The site also includes active and passive water-harvesting systems that collect 230,000 gallons of water annually for reuse, native plantings that represent distinct Arizona biomes and on-site recycled materials that were incorporated into the design.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Baja Garden
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Cactus City Design
Phoenix, Arizona
 
During their travels, the owners of a desert home with views of Camelback Mountain became smitten with the landscape of Baja California. When it came time to renovate their Arizona garden, they requested a setting inspired by Baja’s otherworldly formations.
Making the most of the home’s desert locale, mountain views and a nearby wash, landscape architect Steve Martino, FASLA, opened views to the mountain, screened neighboring houses by planting desert trees and designed a deck to span the wash. A small secret garden at the back corner of the property is framed with sloping walls that suggest a deep canyon and is anchored by a firepit embellished with rebar. Plant materials include sculptural cactus native to Baja.
HONOR AWARDS
Paradise Valley Residence
Paradise Valley, Arizona
JJR/Floor
Phoenix, Arizona
The owners of a 1966 modernist masterpiece by Palm Springs architect William Cody wished to respect the home’s elegantly spare architecture during the course of a landscape renovation that included the addition of a pool and expanded deck, a revamped auto court and new desert plantings.
The centerpiece of the renovation project was the new pool, scaled to reflect the five-by-five-foot square modular design of the original architecture. The pool matches the existing elevation of the home’s cantilevered decking, but is set above ground as the site slopes away to the north, allowing dramatic vanishing effects on three sides. The pool includes a shallow “margarita deck” in which chaise lounges seemingly float. Fencing is rust-patinaed pipe steel, anchored below grade to eliminate the need for horizontal support, allowing more unobstructed views of desert plantings and the adjacent golf course.
City of Glendale Park and Ride
Glendale, Arizona
J2 Engineering and Environmental Design
Phoenix, Arizona
Located near a busy freeway, a football stadium, and local and express bus routes, the park-and-ride is the largest such facility in metro Phoenix and meant to encourage carpooling and transit use.
More than being just a parking lot, the project’s design demonstrates sustainability through the use of permeable paving, rainwater harvesting that both waters the native Sonoran plant palette and creates an ephemeral water feature, and shading for both pedestrians and cars via shade canopies and strategically placed trees and plants.
Cancer Clinic at University Medical Center North
Tucson, Arizona
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc.
Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas
 Healing was the theme for this garden experience, designed to both soothe the souls of patients as well as the site itself–an existing parking lot and former hospital.
The design restored natural drainage ways via the creation of an arroyo and mitigated the effect of a parking lot through the use of grade changes and bridges that lead into the garden. The arroyo also serves to convey storm water and condensate from the building into the garden. Working with a palette of Sonoran plant material, the landscape incorporates a series of patios and resting areas, a granite pathway, an outdoor meditation room and interior courtyards visible to patients in waiting and treatment rooms.
 Sybil B. Harrington Cactus & Succulent Galleries
Phoenix, Arizona
Cactus City Design
Phoenix, Arizona
Located at the Desert Botanical Garden, the new galleries–named for the donor–replace an aluminum lathe cactus house built in 1950 and a succulent house built in the 1960s.
Landscape architect Steve Martino’s design of the two new exhibits treats the plant materials as works of art, framing them in structures inspired by the simplicity of greenhouses.
The structures feature barrel-vaulted expanded metal canopies that are supported by masonry columns painted desert red to contrast with the cactus and succulents. The 27-foot height of the canopies allows collections to reach fully mature height.
 The Biodesign Institute
Tempe, Arizona
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc.
Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas
Located on a four-acre site on the campus of Arizona State University, the Biodesign Institute is a teaching and research facility dedicated to healing and sustaining life. The institute’s landscape reflects this mission with the creation of a green setting on a site where a sterile parking lot and water-retention basins once stood.
The project includes a sophisticated water-harvesting system, a showcase for desert biomes, an urban wildlife habitat, an accessible amphitheater and numerous outdoor gathering places.
Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix, Arizona
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc.
Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas
An expansion and new entry to the art museum provided an opportunity to revamp its landscape, including creating a new group entry, a redesign of the parking lot, an enhanced streetscape and a new entry forecourt.
The new forecourt is the focus of the landscape and serves both as a clear entry point to the museum as well as a special events space. The stone paver forecourt leads to a plinth of grass where sculptures could be placed. Walls shield the forecourt from the noise of adjacent Central Avenue, and a water feature that spills into a basin intersecting the grass serves to cool the setting. Shade is provided by a grid of palo brea trees.
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