For the 2025 awards program, three Sasaki projects were recognized for their excellence, highlighting achievements across Sasaki’s landscape architecture and campus planning practices: 

1. Xinyang University South Bay Campus Gateway Landscape received a Special Citation for Excellence in Landscape Architecture
2. Auraria Campus Framework received an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Planning
3. University of British Columbia received an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Planning.

Xinyang University South Bay Campus Gateway Landscape – Special Citation in Excellence in Landscape Architecture for General Design

The campus gateway landscape for Xinyang University (XYU) South Bay Campus represents a pioneering approach to 21st-century education in China. From the outset, the design team collaborated closely with XYU leadership, faculty, student bodies, and the operations and facilities teams to create a unified vision for a living-learning community that integrates academic pursuits with ecological consciousness. Sustainability and cultural identity are key elements of the landscape, which incorporates locally sourced materials to reduce the carbon footprint and showcase local culture. Flexibility is a core principle, allowing for adaptation to evolving campus life and emerging technologies.

The campus gateway artfully transforms the undulating terrain and intricate drainage patterns into unique assets, incorporating ecologically rich landscapes that support native plants and year-round wildlife. The new campus leverages landscape restoration to amplify the liberal arts institution’s educational mission. Designed as a living classroom, the campus integrates outdoor learning environments and recreational spaces with stormwater management and wildlife habitats.

Auraria Campus Framework – Honorable Mention in Excellence in Planning for an Existing Campus

The Auraria Campus Framework Plan provides a roadmap for future growth of the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC) campus, which is uniquely shared by three separate and distinct institutions of higher learning: Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and University of Colorado Denver. Touching on the full spectrum of university activity, the plan establishes a unified vision to realize synergies and efficiencies that come from sharing a campus, while also manifesting the distinct academic mission of each partner institution.

Sasaki worked closely with the three institutions to develop solutions for building campus cohesion and supporting student success while taking stock of their unique needs. From recommendations for creating pedestrian-oriented pathways and connections to downtown Denver to promoting community-led projects that reckon with the history of the site, the Framework charts a future for the campus community that centers on resilience and collaboration. 

University of British Columbia Campus Vision 2025 –  Honorable Mention in Excellence in Planning for an Existing Campus

Submitted in collaboration with the Planning and Design Department at the University of British Columbia, the University of British Columbia (UBC) Campus Vision 2025 is an ambitious, long-range plan to help UBC support the needs of its students, faculty, residents, affiliated neighbourhoods, and its relationship with the Musqueam, the university’s host Indigenous Nation. Considering the campus’ general design and character, Vision 2025 focuses on the physical development of academic and neighborhood lands as well as the ecological, social, cultural and physical requirements for a healthy, thriving campus community that supports the university’s academic mission. 

Multiple rounds of engagement with students, faculty, residents, staff, and Musqueam community helped establish guiding principles, generate planning strategies, explore trade-offs and choices, and refine the final vision. With cross-cutting physical design approaches to campus development, the vision creates a memorable place of learning and living by identifying new academic spaces, expanding and replacing student housing as well as new neighbourhood housing, and through improvements to amenities, infrastructure, and mobility with the anticipated new rapid rail stations on campus.