2013 Competion Annual

It was not all too long ago that somebody like Eero Saarinen brought in landscape architect, Dan Kiley, to collaborate on his projects. Even at that, landscape architects were seldom the team leaders in competing for those jobs. Most planning competitions even those where parks were the major focus were still won by architects, partially because they were the first to wholeheartedly adopt computer technology as part of the presentation process. When asked why landscape architects were not successful in those competitions, the answer was usually, they aren t that proficient with the computer. Now that has all changed. Landscape firms such as Ken Smith, Michael Van Valkenburgh, George Hargreaves, Hoerr Schaudt, Stoss, Field Operations, Peter Walker, and West 8, just to name a few, are household names. They are usually leading teams for urban design projects, not to mention parks of all sizes and shapes.The leading landscape/urban design firms mentioned on these pages as competition winners, or important members of successful teams, is a tribute to the advances in the landscape profession and recognition that a project doesn t just end at the front door. Thus we see architecture firms such as OMA and Diller Scofidio and Renfro collaborating with landscape firms for park projects in New York, Toronto, Glasgow and Moscow.This recent phenomenon is examplified by the number of competitions mentioned in this issue, where landscape and planning are major components of the process. From the Lexington Town Branch competition, won by Scape / Landscape of New York, to the University of Manitoba s campus planning competition, won by Janet Rosenberg Studio, the evidence is clear: landscape architects are, more than ever, an integral part of our urban planning process."