The 2024 BSLA Design Awards Call for Entries
Clockwise, from top left: "Mycofiltration for Stormwater Management" by Offshoots, Inc. w/Mass DOT, Goode Landscape Studio, Steven Handel, and Colin Chadderton (Research); "For the Girls" by Lu-La Studio (Residential Design); "The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund" by MASS Design Group w/TEN x TEN (General Design)
Boston Society of Landscape Architects seeks to recognize excellence in the diverse practices of landscape architecture.
We are pleased to release the 2024 BSLA Design Awards Program Call for Entries.
Professionals and students are encouraged to submit their best work for review by the 2024 BSLA Awards Program Jury. Projects should demonstrate excellence and reflect the careful stewardship, wise planning, and artful design of our cultural and natural environment.
Submitted projects should merit recognition in one or more of the following areas:
Exemplary social, cultural, educational, or environmental significance
Outstanding quality, craftsmanship, creativity, or artistry
Unique and innovative technologies, techniques, or concepts
Advancement of the public’s awareness and understanding of the field of landscape architecture
Awards will be granted for STUDENT work, and in the PROFESSIONAL categories of Residential Design, General Design, Analysis & Planning, Communication, and Research. The Landmark category recognizes a distinguished project completed at least 15 years ago. Student and Professional awards will be recognized at the levels of Excellence, Honor, and Merit. The jury may also award Special Recognitions.
WHO CAN SUBMIT?
Professional Awards are open to practitioners within the BSLA chapter area — Massachusetts and Maine — and to projects sited within Massachusetts and Maine, whether or not the practitioner is located in the chapter area. Individuals, firms, project owners, public agencies, organizations, or other entities may be the formal submitting entity as long as the project’s creative team includes a registered landscape architect, a graduate of an accredited landscape architecture program, or a ASLA/BSLA member (full, associate, or affiliate).
Student submissions must be work performed while enrolled in a landscape architecture or design program within the BSLA Chapter area — Massachusetts and Maine — or to landscape architecture students studying elsewhere with legal residence in Massachusetts or Maine. Recent graduates may student work created while they were a student so long as they’re within two years of graduation.
Submitters are not required to be members of BSLA or ASLA.
ASLA and BSLA members do receive a discount on the submission fees.
See the Call for Entries for complete eligibility information.
IMPORTANT DATES + FEES
NOTE: Rates have not increased this year.
Q&A Session
Wednesday, March 6 at noon. By Zoom. Register here.
Early Submission. Discounted rates through Friday, March 15
$25 Students
$100 BSLA Members (this includes all ASLA members in Massachusetts + Maine)
$175 Members of other ASLA chapters
$275 Non-Members
Standard Submissions. Through Friday, March 29.
$35 Students
$150 BSLA Members
$250 Other ASLA Chapter Members
$350 Non-Members
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis until Friday, March 29, 11:59pm EST.
The final date for all submissions is 11:59pm EST on Friday, March 29, 2024.
The 2024 JURY
This jury was selected for the variety of scales, geographies, and ways in which they work; together, they create a unique and extraordinary cross section of landscape architecture practice in our region today.
Thank You to every one of the incredible individuals of the 2024 BSLA Design Awards Jury:
(in alphabetical order; headshots are ordered left to right, starting at the top)
Michael Blier, FASLA | Landworks Studio Inc. and RISD faculty
Michael Boucher, FASLA | michael boucher landscape architecture
Kate Cholakis | faculty, The Conway School of Landscape Design
Abby Derick | UMass Amherst MLA '23, Copley Wolff
Ana Fernandez Martinez | MASS Design Group
Chris Hardy, ASLA | Sasaki
Estello Raganit, ASLA | Agency Landscape + Planning
Austin Sun, Student ASLA | Harvard GSD MArch & MLA '24
Amy Whitesides | faculty, Harvard GSD
along with special guest jury chair
Adam Greenspan, FASLA | PWP Landscape Architecture
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
2024 Info Session is happened live, on Zoom, Wednesday March 6 at noon. Watch the recording.
2023 Info Session Zoom Recording. Generally speaking, is still accurate, too.
Have questions? Email the chapteroffice@bslanow.org. We’ll respond as quickly as possible and will post answers to all questions in an FAQ section here. New questions are at the bottom and are added in the order they’re received.
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Yes! You may submit multiple entries.
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No!!!! We’ve reverted to our old system, which is LOTS easier. You do not need to create multiple accounts nor use different email addresses. Like the old (pre-2022) days, one person may upload multiple entries.
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THIS YEAR, in 2023, we’re back to a word limit. The narrative is a 1300 word limit. If you entered last year, this is a change back to using a word limit. If you entered into the National ASLA design awards, this is intentionally more lenient. (We want to make it easy for you to re-use text from other submissions.)
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Yes. The Research category may include images of text as part of your graphic submission.
For other categories, let common sense rule. If what you’re submitting is, say, a book, or if it needs charts, numbers, infographics, etc. to explain the award-winning story, then by all means — use what makes sense for the project that you’re submitting.
Also: Please keep in mind that there are real humans on the Design Awards jury, with a lot of entries to review — lots and lots of words or numbers on a slide won’t easily be read. Keep it clean, simple, elegant, with the main point easily understood.
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To the best of our ability, we will provide jury feedback on all submissions.
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Previously unsuccessful submissions may try as many times as you like, and may shift categories.
If a project has previously WON a BSLA Design Award, it cannot be resubmitted for Design Awards again. (With the exception of Landmark.)
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BSLA Design Awards are “given” to the project. We are always happy to re-issue an Awards certificate with new firm name. Likewise, additional project partners can be added to certificates.
Email the chapteroffice@bslanow.org for certificate requests from past awards cycles.
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Yes! It’s great to see people in photos. We ask you to avoid photos with obvious logo clothing that’s connected to the project (or blur out the logo), but people are definitely welcome.
Insider tip: When entries are submitted, our Awards Chairs take a look for anonymity, format issues, etc. If there’s a problem, we’ll reach out directly and ask you to fix it. If you’ve taken the time to submit an entry, we want your entry to be reviewed by the jury!
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Yes. If the project being submitted is for the Student category, then you may submit using the Student entry fee, even if you have already graduated.
The rule is that you can enter student work under the student rate up to two years after graduation.
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No. Image labels do not count toward the caption word count.
We’ll also add:
On text on the slides overall, we ask everyone to let common sense prevail, and understand that the jurors are looking at many entries. (What would help you understand this project? What do you have the patience to read?)
DO describe what you want jurors to notice, and DO highlight the aspects that make this award-worthy. DON'T go overboard in text simply because too many words won't be read. Be kind to your readers.
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No. The intent of having the text in that first slide (or however many slides it takes) is to make it easy for jurors to read the narrative without flipping back and forth between different documents. Text only on those first narrative/statement slides, please.
The statement/summary is new for BSLA; it's something that ASLA uses in the national design awards process. We're hoping that it helps convey that high level story to the jury, while also making it easier for us to share the stories of these projects, and helps us do that more accurately and in your voice.
Good luck!
THANK YOU for your work advancing design excellence in our built world.
See the 2021 BSLA Design Award winners.
See the 2022 BSLA Design Award winners.
See the 2023 BSLA Design Award winners.
