Sasaki
Every year, the American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA) Colorado/Wyoming chapter conducts an awards program to recognize professional excellence by its members in the practice of landscape architecture. For the 2023 awards program, Sasaki received three Professional Awards in recognition of Bonnet Springs Park, Gene C. Reid Park Master Plan, and Lake Monona Waterfront Master Plan.
Completed in 2022, Bonnet Springs Park transformed a 168-acre abandoned rail yard into a cultural magnet and community asset for the residents of Lakeland, Florida. With a remediation strategy that involved the removal of invasive plants, constructing wetlands and bioswales to treat runoff, and capping contaminated soil, Bonnet Springs introduces an ecological jewel to a rapidly growing region of central Florida. The park includes botanical gardens, a canopy walk, boating activities, playgrounds, and an event lawn. New walking and biking paths connect major park spaces with new buildings designed by Sasaki: Welcome Center, Nature Center, Event Center, and the Florida Children’s Museum and Café.
Following a year-long public engagement process, Sasaki’s Gene C. Reid Park Master Plan reimagines the city’s largest urban park, serving a range of community recreational, ecological, and cultural purposes. The master plan provides a comprehensive vision for the future of the park that unites existing and new destinations with a central loop of pedestrian and biking lanes while incorporating climate mitigation features that transform the park into a naturalized landscape. The community’s desire for a more natural landscape directly reinforced the strategic goal of strengthening the park’s resilience, effectively expanding its role as an essential part of the larger city’s heat and flood resilience strategy.
After an intensive design and engagement process and a four-month review period, Sasaki was selected by the City of Madison committee to establish an ecologically vibrant living edge along Lake Monona’s waterfront. The redevelopment will forge connections to the water, expand recreational options, improve water quality, and provide an ecologically healthy shoreline for wildlife. The waterfront is woven together by the Story Walk, a wayfinding element and physical representation of the design’s guiding principles and dialogues of the first human inhabitants of the area, the Ho-Chunk Nation. This unifying ribbon shifts in scale across the site, sharing stories of the past, present, and future of Lake Monona’s waterfront.
Congratulations to the design teams! To see all the honorees of this year’s ASLA Colorado/Wyoming Awards, click here.
