Awards & Recognitions

Carl Steinitz is the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning Emeritus at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Honorary Professor at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London. In 1965 he joined Harvard’s Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis. In 1984, he received the CELA Outstanding Educator Award for his “extraordinary contribution to environmental design education” and for his “pioneering exploration in the use of computer technology in landscape planning”. Professor Steinitz is principal author of “Alternative Futures for Changing Landscapes” (2003), and author of “A Framework for Geodesign” (2012). He has lectured and taught workshops at more than 170 universities, and he is the co-founder of the International Geodesign Collaboration.

Anne Whiston Spirn is the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at MIT. The American Planning Association named her first book, The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (1984), as one of the 100 most important books of the 20th century and credited it with launching the ecological urbanism movement.

Since 1987, Spirn has directed the West Philadelphia Landscape Project (WPLP), an action research project whose mission is to restore nature and rebuild community through strategic design, planning, and education programs. Through experimental projects, WPLP seeks to demonstrate how to create human settlements that are healthier, economical to build and maintain, more resilient, more beautiful, and more just. A key proposal of the West Philadelphia Landscape Project is to manage the West Philadelphia’s Mill Creek watershed as part of a broad approach to improving regional water quality and as a strategy to secure funds to rebuild neighborhoods. In 1999, a White House summit for leading "Scholars and Artists in Public life" cited WPLP as a "Model of Best Practice."

WPLP employs landscape literacy as a cornerstone of community development and served as a laboratory for Spirn’s second book, The Language of Landscape (1998). The book sets out a theory of landscape and aesthetics that takes account of both human interpretive frameworks and natural process. It argues that landscape is a form of language with its own grammar and metaphors, and that we endanger ourselves by failing to learn and use this language.

In recent books, Spirn has continued to develop the concept of landscape literacy as part of the larger subject of visual literacy and visual thinking. Her award-winning book, Daring to Look (2008), presents photographs and reports from the field by the great photographer Dorothea Lange in 1939 and reflects on how the dynamics she saw and recorded in the Great Depression are still shaping American lives and landscapes. Spirn’s most recent book, The Eye Is a Door: Landscape, Photography, and the Art of Discovery, is about seeing as a way of knowing and photography as a way of thinking.

Prior to MIT, Anne Whiston Spirn taught at Harvard University, where she was director of the Landscape Architecture Program, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning and Director of the Urban Studies Program.

In 2018 Spirn received the National Design Award and the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Medal. In 2001, she was awarded Japan’s International Cosmos Prize for “contributions to the harmonious coexistence of nature and mankind.”

Clare Cooper Marcus is Professor Emerita in the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the Principal of Healing Landscapes, a consulting firm that specializes in researching the effectiveness of restorative landscapes in healthcare settings. She is internationally recognized for her research on the social and psychological implications of design, particularly urban open space, affordable housing, outdoor space in healthcare, and environments for children and the elderly.

Since retiring from full-time teaching at Berkeley, Marcus has published four books, more than 30 articles, and has lectured and consulted in Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Iceland. She teaches regularly at the Chicago Botanic Garden on healthcare garden design.

Marcus has been recognized for her work with awards from the Progressive Architecture, Landscape Architecture Magazine, American Institute of Architects, American Society of Landscape Architects, Environmental Design Research Association, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, American Horticultural Therapy Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Her newest book, Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces (2013) was co-authored with LAEP alumna, Naomi Sachs (MLA '99). Iona Dreaming: The Healing Power of Place – A Memoir was published in 2010. She has also authored/co-authored/edited numerous publications, including the books – Easter Hill Village: Some Social Implications of Design (1975); Housing As If People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for Medium-Density Family Housing (1986), People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space (1990), House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home (1995), and Healing Gardens: Therapeutic Benefits and Design Recommendations (1999) was co-authored with LAEP alumna, Marni Barnes (MLA '94). Marcus lives in Berkeley, California and holds joint British and American citizenship.

Accordion Bill began his professional education with a BS degree from Michigan State’s Landscape and Urban Planning program in 1954. He followed that up with a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1957. Then he started professional practice in Boston in the same year with Hideo Sasaki. Shortly after that Bill moved to Detroit to begin working with his brother Carl Johnson. Within the first year there, the former chair of the LA program at Harvard’s GSD asked Bill to join him at the University of Michigan to rebuild that program at Ann Arbor, and they commenced that work in 1958.

It was at this point that teaching AND practice became a way of life for Bill. An unexpected boost to his fledgling private practice came in 1961when the University of Michigan asked him to prepare a sequence of long-range development plans for the new North Campus, the Medical Center, and the Central Campus. That work spanned from 1961 to 1965. It was during this period that Bill, his brother Carl, and Clarence Roy joined forces in 1965 to form Johnson, Johnson, and Roy, Inc., which is now known as JJR. For the next ten years the firm was unexpectedly flooded with professional assignments; campus planning, downtown development, park planning, neighborhood restoration, and historic preservation. The work ranged throughout the greater Midwest and along the East Coast. Fifty-five years later JJR continues strongly in all aspects of physical planning and design.

The LA program at the University of Michigan matured to about 50 graduate students and a faculty of six. Then in 1975, Bill took a leave of absence from JJR to become the University of Michigan’s Dean of the School of Natural Resources for a period of 8 years.

Bill returned to professional practice in 1983. Then in 1991 an opportunity arose to practice in partnership with Peter Walker in San Francisco. This was the beginning of a twenty-five year practice on the west coast (mostly San Francisco, Berkeley, and Seattle). It was during this time that oil painting emerged as the way for Bill to celebrate the beauty of this earth and I hope he has included some of his paintings in his presentation.

In 2012, Bill and his wife Charlotte returned to Holland, Michigan to be closer to family roots. He continues to paint and pursue an active practice and they pitch in where they can to advance the quality of community life.

Bill remarked that a 60+ year professional practice sounds like a long time but it has gone by in a flash, and the work continues to energize him beyond description. He knows there is still much to be done.

While we honor you with this lifetime achievement award for that 60+ year career, we also hope that your work continues long into the future. Please join me in welcoming and congratulating William, Bill Johnson.

Jie Hu was born into the world of architecture, as his parents were both professors of architecture at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. Beginning in his youth, everything in his life was nurtured and influenced by the field of architecture and art, and he began to develop an interest at a young age. He enjoyed painting and drawing, and was fortunate enough to receive training in the basic foundations from his middle school art teacher Mr. Chenglu Wu. In 1979, Jie began his bachelor degree program in architecture at Chongqing University, one of China’s eight most prestigious architecture universities, and in 1983 began his landscape architecture master’s degree program at Beijing Forestry University. Under the mentoring of Mr. Xiaoxiang Sun, Jie studied theclassical Chinese gardens, and once the door was opened, he never left the field of study, and his passion for the profession has driven him throughout his entire career.

In 1988, Jie Hu applied for the landscape architecture master program at University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), where he studied in a curriculum that included topics such as western culture, eco-technology, and land and resource use. In 1995, Jie graduated from the program and was awarded ASLA’s Student Design ExcellenceAward. In the same year, he began working for Sasaki Associates. At Sasaki, he presided over many aspects of successful planning and design projects, including the design of Guangzhou’s “Scenic New City” project and of eastern Beijing’s “Sun City.” After his eight years working at Sasaki Associates, Jie gradually blended Western modern landscape design with Chinese cultural elements into his own unique style of design.

The most important and pivotal point in Jie Hu’s career was the international bidding for the Beijing Olympic Green in 2002. At that time, Sasaki’s design plan shone among other bids from over 90 other first class companies. As a Chinese national, the upcoming Olympics in Beijing were close to Jie’s heart, and after deep thought he resolutely decided to return to China to continue working on the Olympic design program. He decided to pursue this landscape architecture dream on his own country’s soil. After returning to China, he assembled a team of designers at Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute, and invested his whole being into the Olympic Forest Park design program. The success of the Olympic Forest Park project can be attributed to Jie’s personal influence and his constant efforts to improve the project’s design.

After returning to China, Jie found himself in the middle of an extraordinary era for China; the country was truly in a period of unprecedented development and openness. Encouraged and inspired by this, Jie was presented with many opportunities to develop beautiful and rich landscape architecture projects. Large-scale design projects which he has presided over, such as the Tangshan Nanhu Central Park, the Tieling Fanhe New City in Liaoning Province, the Lushun Portside New City Central District and the Huludao Longwan Central Business District, have received both national and international acclaim and honors; Between 2007 and 2016, his projects have received 37 international awards and 38 national awards. Beyond these project awards, Jie has also been personally designated as a Beijing Olympic Planning Project Exploring & Design and Mapping Industry Advanced Individual, a torchbearer for the 2008 Olympic Games, has been given the Beijing foreign experts “Great Wall Friendship Award”, and has been recognized as a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

During all his program involvement, Jie Hu has never forgotten to contribute to the theory and technology of the field. Relying on Tsinghua University’s integrated platform for production and research, he combines practice with his teaching. He has given 56 speeches at conferences both domestic and overseas, including multiple times at ASLA, IFLA, CELA, and AIA conferences. In this way, he has introduced the results of Chinese landscape design to international counterparts and professionals. Additionally, through this type of dialogue with peers, he successfully introduced American landscape research to practices in China, successfully introducing CELA teachers and graduate students into Tsinghua Tongheng’s projects to create a platform for project consultant, cooperation and practice, achieving industry-study-research combination. Simultaneously, Jie has attached importance to the development of digital technology, bringing digital landscape technology into the landscape architecture industry and using it in practice. His research, “Digital Viewing of the Qianlong Garden” has become a main provider of digitization technology system for classical Chinese gardens, and has provided a great contribution. The program received the second prize of scientific and technological progress prize organized by Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture, reaching an international level of recognition. His current planning and design projects actively use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, GIS, RS and other advanced technologies to carry out information gathering on site and conduct detailed analysis of site conditions. At the regional scale, Jie has carried out macro-scale ecological planning related to the built environment, constructed regional and watershed area landscape ecosystem network systems, and directed regional resource development and layout planning, in order to achieve a balance between the maintaining environment and economic development. He has explored a systematic application of information technology to planning and design, creatively developing BIM (Building Information Modeling) based on practical application of landscape design, and forming digital landscape rendering application based on LIM(Landscape Information Modeling) systems.

In nearly 40 years of his career, Jie Hu has been involved in a total of 42 major bidding projects, 31 of which won the bid, and a total of 136 landscape architecture projects, 43 of which have been implemented. Through this journey, “Chinese Traditional Landscape Culture” has been his most valuable source of influence and inspiration, and has led him down an unswerving path of developments in landscape design. Jie’s projects have already had a wide impact on the industry, both within China and worldwide. Firstly, he has greatly expanded the boundaries and the contents of the landscape design field, successfully uniting urban planning, municipal engineering, transportation planning, environmental conservation, public art, and other aspects into an integrated multi-disciplinary. Furthermore, he has enriched the user capacity of the traditional Chinese garden, transforming it from a small number of people to a public service. These as a whole have contributed majorly to the development of the industry.

Therefore, in light of his contributions to both educational and professional aspects of the field, the CELA committee would like to recommend Jie Hu for the 2018 CELA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Laurie Olin was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin and later lived in Fairbanks, Alaska while his father worked for the Army Corps of Engineers. He started his journey in civil engineering at the University of Alaska and furthered his education in 1961 as he received a bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Washington. During his time as a student, there were many professors that influenced his artistic and professional career and shaped who he is today as a designer.

Following graduation, Olin worked from 1962 - 1967 for Seattle architect Fred Bassetti, and architect Edward Larrabee Barnes in New York. As Olin’s desire to learn beyond architecture grew, it led him to travel and attain inspiration through his discoveries and art. Different organizations such as a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship allowed him to study English landscapes. From 1974 – 1976, The Fellowship in Landscape Architecture in Rome also allowed Olin to travel throughout Italy. His experiences resulted in him acquiring a vast amount of knowledge from these years abroad and shifted his personal and professional life.

Throughout Olin’s career, teaching was always essential. He began teaching at the University of Washington Landscape Architecture in1970-1972. A few years later at the University of Pennsylvania, Olin became part of the landscape architecture department along with Bob Hanna. Aside from their careers as college professors, the coworkers started the firm Hanna/Olin in Philadelphia. Allowing their visions to coincide, they revolved their company around the idea of creating a working environment for comprehensive landscape design. The pursuit of this idea led to their first project; the pastoral office park for the Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Corporate Center in Princeton, New Jersey. Hanna/Olin began expanding, and the projects that followed reshaped many public spaces in a phenomenal and new way. Some of these projects include: the Landscape Development Plan for the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Battery Park City, New York; Canary Wharf, and Bishopsgate, in London, England; and the 16th Street Transitway Mall, Denver.

Additional to his practice, Olin served as chairman of the landscape architecture program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design from 1982-1987. As chairman, he created collaborative studios with the architecture department, as well as, contributed to numerous innovations. In 1998, he returned to Philadelphia and continued teaching at Penn Landscape Architecture. During this time the firm of Hanna /Olin parted ways, and Olin proceeded to establish the Olin Partnership with Susan Weiler, Lucinda Sanders, Robert Bedell, Dennis McGlade, and David Rubin. The firm’s name was later transformed into OLIN and developed into two offices that are located in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Olin’s design career took off exponentially and successfully expanded around the world. Many remarkable projects have been designed such as; Barnes Foundation, Columbus Circle in New York, Independence Mall in Philadelphia within Independence National Historical Park, Waterworks Park, Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Logan Square, and Rodin Museum. His designs are incorporated in parks, residences, squares, gardens, academic and corporate design, urban design, and other monumental locations. His signature projects include; Bryant Park in New York and the Brancusi Ensemble in Romania. With the ability to design timeless and elegant spaces, he exemplified his skills by creating an outdoor sculpture garden in Washington, D.C. for the National Gallery of Art. From 2001-2005 he redesigned a post-9/11 of the Washington Monument grounds. A few of his greatest international achievements are in the 2010 competition for the U.S. Embassy in London, as well as, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany (1998-2005).

Alongside his many accomplishments, Olin volunteers on advisory and jury committees for landscape design, regional planning, and is a successful international lecturer. As his unwavering passion for education in Landscape Architecture remains, he also continues to teach at the University of Pennsylvania. The passion he holds led him to establish a Master of Landscape Architecture program in 2002 at the University of Texas, Austin, and they appointed him the Ruth Carter Stevenson Chair. In a process of around three years, he was also named the chairman of an international committee of landscape architects at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and helped begin a graduate program in landscape architecture there. His knowledge of campus design has grown into one of his specialties, including numerous projects for Temple University, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, University of Virginia, MIT, and others.

Not only is Olin an astounding designer, he is a skilled artist. His illustrations and paintings have been displayed in major museums throughout the world. He has exhibited his art, design, and knowledge by publishing books and articles on the history of landscape design for almost fifty years. He was even awarded the 1991 Bradford Medal for Best Writing in Landscape Architecture. Along with the numerous articles that were published, he has co-authored many books which including Breath on the Mirror: Seattle's Skid Road Community (1973), and Be Seated (2017). Throughout his career, Laurie Olin has received many honors and awards such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in 1998, The Bybee Prize from the Building Institute (2010), and The American Society of Landscape Architect’s ASLA Medal, the highest honor in landscape architecture (2011).

The way Laurie Olin has positively impacted Landscape Architecture is immeasurable. He designs with pragmatism and creates spaces that are beautiful, yet rooted in a foundational desire to simplify and enhance the world we live in. His creations are elegant and timeless, and displays the heart and mind of a true urbanist. Olin has displayed great leadership in the design community and is praised for his ability to educate those around him. He is known to be one of the most important Landscape Architects practicing today. With great honor, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture awards Laurie Olin the 2016 CELA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Meg Calkins

Katya Crawford

Allan Shearer

Ashley Steffens

Patsy Eubanks Owens

Mark Boyer

Charlene Lebleu

Tim Keane

Hala Nassar

Richard Weller

Bob Grese

Sean Michael

Peter Olin

Iain Robertson

William Sullivan

Christopher D. Ellis

John Koepke

Laurel McSherry

Charles (Chip) H. Sullivan

Peter Trowbridge

Terry Clements

Lauri Macmillan Johnson

Ming-Han Li

Lee-Anne Milburn

David Pitt

Paula Horrigan

Craig W. Johnson

Dan Nadenicek

Jon Rodiek

Stephanie Rolley

Bernard Dahl

Gary Kesler

William Johnson

Patrick Mooney

Alfred Simon

Charles W. Harris

Philip H. Lewis

Douglas Paterson

David Streatfield

Richard Toth

Ethan Carr

James Corner

Walter Hood

Brian Orland

Joan Woodward

Vincent Bellafiore

George Curry

Claudia Goetz Phillips

Beth Meyer

James Taylor

Catherine Howett

M. Sally Schauman

John F. Ahern

Linda Jewell

Moura Quayle

Mary Myers

Carl Steinitz

Julius Fabos

Bruce Ferguson

Mark Francis

Ken Brooks

Elen Deming

Richard Hawks

Mark Hoversten

Art Rice

Robert Scarfo

Simon Swaffield

Pat D. Taylor

Arnold Alanen

Robert D. Brown

Malcolm Cairns

Dan W. Donelin

Donna L. Erickson

Cynthia Girling

Kenneth I. Helphand

Randolph T. Hester, Jr.

Patrick Miller

Joan I. Nassauer

Forster Ndubisi

Anne Whiston Spirn

Frederick Steiner

Robert L. Thayer

William H. Tishler

Janice Cervelli

William Grundmann

Karen Hanna

Cameron R.J. Man

Darrel G. Morrison

James Palmer

Robert B. Riley

Gary O. Robinette

Ronald Royce Stoltz

Joanne M. Westphal

Anne Whiston Spirn

Arnold Alanen

Art Rice

Beth Meyer

Brian Orland

Bruce Ferguson

Cameron R.J. Man

Carl Steinitz

Catherine Howett

Charles W. Harris

Claudia Goetz Phillips

Craig W. Johnson

Cynthia Girling

Dan W. Donelin

Dan Nadenicek

Darrel G. Morrison

David Pitt

David Streatfield

Donna L. Erickson

Douglas Paterson

Dr. Alfred Simon

Dr. Patrick Mooney

Elen Deming

Ethan Carr

Forster Ndubisi

Frederick Steiner

Gary O. Robinette

George Curry

James Corner

James Palmer

James Taylor

Janice Cervelli

Joan I. Nassauer

Joan Woodward

Joanne M. Westphal

John F. Ahern

Jon Rodiek

Julius Fabos

Karen Hanna

Ken Brooks

Kenneth I. Helphand

Linda Jewell

Lauri Macmillan Johnson

Lee-Anne Milburn

M. Sally Schauman

Malcolm Cairns

Mark Francis

Mark Hoversten

Mary Myers

Ming-Han Li

Moura Quayle

Mr. William Johnson

Pat D. Taylor

Patrick Miller

Paula Horrigan

Philip H. Lewis

Prof. Bernard Dahl

Prof. Gary Kesler

Randolph T. Hester, Jr.

Richard Hawks

Richard Toth

Robert B. Riley

Robert D. Brown

Robert L. Thayer

Robert Scarfo

Ronald Royce Stoltz

Simon Swaffield

Stephanie Rolley

Terry Clements

Vincent Bellafiore

Walter Hood

William Grundmann

William H. Tishler