Awards

2019 National Design Award | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
In June 2019, SCAPE was honored with a 2019 National Design Award in landscape architecture by the Cooper Hewitt. Launched by the White House in 2000, the award recognizes excellence and innovation across design fields, and celebrates design as a vital humanistic tool in improving quality of life.
During National Design Week in Fall 2019, SCAPE designers participated in a number of programs at the Smithsonian Design Museum centered around the interactive design of public spaces in New York. On October 17, the SCAPE Principals (Kate Orff, Elena Brescia, Gena Wirth, John Donnelly, and Pippa Brashear) attended a gala and awards ceremony, joined by Vishaan Chakrabarti (PAU).

ASLA-NY 2019 Awards
SCAPE is honored to receive 3 ASLA New York Awards this year. SCAPE was selected for Honor Awards for the First Avenue Water Plaza in the category General Landscape Architecture Design and for the Public Sediment: Unlock Alameda Creek in the category of Analysis, Planning, Research, and Communications and a Merit Award for the Madison Avenue Plaza in the category of General Landscape Architecture Design.

AIA California Council Urban Design Merit Award | Public Sediment: Unlock Alameda Creek
The SCAPE-led Public Sediment team was awarded a AIA California Merit Award in the Urban Design category, for their Unlock Alameda Creek proposal. The team developed Unlock Alameda Creek for the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge. The team’s proposal is based on the premise that sea level rise adaptation must happen upstream. Low sediment supply and bayland drowning represents a slow but devastating scale of loss that threatens ecosystems, recreational landscapes, and places hundreds of thousands of residents and the region’s critical drinking water, energy, and transportation systems at risk. To creatively adapt to this challenge, the team has focused on bringing back sediment to the Bay. The Public Sediment team includes Arcadis, The Dredge Research Collaborative, TS Studio, UC Davis Department of Human Ecology and Design, Cy Keener, and Architectural Ecologies Lab.

MacArthur Fellow | Kate Orff, Founder & Principal
Creativity, potential, and a promise for future accomplishments are the three criteria for selection for the MacArthur Fellowship. The Fellows are meant to touch on social challenges and bring exceptional innovation and experimentation to inspire diverse people and places.
Kate Orff has joined the MacArthur Fellowship Program – Class of 2017, the first Landscape Architect in the Foundation’s 36 year history to be honored with the award. She brings fresh ideas towards new forms of public space, reviving hidden ecological systems and encouraging urban residents to become active stewards in their environment.
Selected Awards
- Georgia Water Coalition: Clean 13 Award | 2020 | The Chattahoochee RiverLands
- NYC Public Design Commission: Award for Excellence in Design | 2020 | Red Hook Library
- APA-GA: Outstanding Planning Document | 2020 | The Chattahoochee RiverLands
- ASLA Professional Awards: Honor Award – Analysis and Planning | 2019 | Public Sediment: Unlock Alameda Creek
- ASLA-NY Honor Award - General Landscape Architecture Design Category | 2019 | First Avenue Water Plaza
- ASLA-NY Honor Award - Analysis, Planning, Research, and Communications Category | 2019 | Public Sediment: Unlock Alameda Creek
- 2019 | ASLA-NY Merit Award - General Landscape Architecture Design Category | Madison Avenue Plaza
- The Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Awards: Honorable Mention, Unbuilt – Landscape | 2019 | Tom Lee Park
- The Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Awards: Honorable Mention, Unbuilt – Urban Design | 2019 | Pensacola Waterfront Framework Plan
- The Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Awards: Honorable Mention, Landscape – Public | 2019 | First Avenue Water Plaza
- Architect’s Newspaper, Best of Design Awards, Representation-Analog / “Public Sediment” | 2018
- AIA California Council - Urban Design Merit Award / “Public Sediment: Unlock Alameda Creek” | 2018 | Public Sediment: Unlock Alameda Creek
- ASLA-NY Merit Award - General Landscape Architecture Design Category | 2018 | New York-Presbyterian & Columbia University Medical Campus Joint Master Plan
- ASLA-NY Honor Award - General Landscape Architecture Design Category | 2018 | Hall of Science Discovery Terrace
- ASLA-NY Honor Award - Analysis, Planning, Research, and Communications Category | 2018 | The Gowanus Lowlands
- Architect Magazine Progressive Architecture Award | 2018 | Helen R. Walton Children’s Enrichment Center
- ACES New York – Gold Award for Studies, Research and Consulting Engineering Services | 2018 | Collaboration w/ Dewberry | Hudson River RBD
- MacArthur Fellow | 2017 | Kate Orff, Founder & Principal
- National ASLA Honor Award - Communications Category | 2017 | Toward an Urban Ecology
- National SARA - Visionary Architecture Award | 2017 | Vagelos Education Center
- NYC Public Design Commission - Award for Excellence in Design | 2017 | Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center
- AIA New York Design Award - Honor in Architecture | 2017 | Vagelos Education Center
- AIA New York Design Award - Best in Competition | 2017 | Vagelos Education Center
- Green Good Design Award | 2016 | Battery Park City Community Center Terrace
- Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Award - Honorable Mention, Temporary Installation | 2016 | Town Branch Water Walk
- NYC Public Design Commission - Award for Excellence in Design | 2016 | Snug Harbor Music Hall
- National SARA Award | 2016 | The Hudson Riverport
- NY SARA Award | 2016 | The Hudson Riverport
- American Planning Association – Kentucky Chapter, Special Merit Award for Outstanding Use of Technology: Civic Engagement | 2016 | Town Branch Water Walk
- ULI Award for Excellence in Development | 2016 | East Harlem Center for Living and Learning | Harlem RBI Dream Charter School Roofscape
- Named American Society of Landscape Architects Fellow | 2016 | Elena Brescia, Partner
- Urban Land Institute NY Awards for Excellence in Development, Mixed-Use Category Finalist | 2015 | Harlem RBI Dream Charter School Roofscape
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture | 2015 | Kate Orff, Founder & Principal
- National Planning Achievement Award for Environmental Planning | 2015 | Living Breakwaters Rebuild By Design Competition
- ACEC NY Engineering Excellence Award | 2015 | Living Breakwaters Rebuild By Design Competition
- ASLA-NY Award | 2015 | Glen Oaks Branch Library
- ASLA-NY Award | 2015 | Cove Co-Habitat
- ASLA-NJ Award - Site Design | 2015 | DMAVA Park
- NY AIA Honor Award - Urban Design Category | 2015 | Beijing Horticultural Expo 2016 Landscape Masterplan
- Winning Proposal for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development “Rebuild By Design” Competition | 2014 | Living Breakwaters Rebuild By Design Competition
- ASLA-NY Award - Collaborative Design Category | 2014 | NYC SIRR Coastal Protection Plan
- ASLA-NY Award - Unbuilt Category | 2014 | Deconstructed Salt Marsh
- Built by Women New York City Winning Site | 2014 | 103rd Street Community Garden
- The Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award | 2014 | Glen Oaks Branch Library
- American Architects 2014 Building of the Year | 2014 | Glen Oaks Branch Library
- NYC DDC Design Excellence Project | 2014 | Glen Oaks Branch Library
- Citation of Excellence Award in the Learning by Design Magazine | 2014 | Abraham Joshua Heschel School Play Roof
- National AIA Committee for Architecture on Education Design Award | 2014 | PAVE Academy Playscape
- Building Brooklyn Design Award | 2014 | PAVE Academy Playscape
- Best K-12 Education Project by Engineering News Record | 2014 | PAVE Academy Playscape
- National Academician | 2013 | Kate Orff, Founder & Partner
- National ASLA Award - Communications Category | 2013 | Petrochemical America
- AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture | 2013 | Cornell University Milstein Hall
- AIA Houston Design Award | 2013 | Blaffer Art Museum Landscape
- Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability and Humanity in the Built Environment | 2012 | Honorable Mention in the Research & Initiative Category
- SCAPE awarded “Emerging Voices” lecture by the Architectural League of New York | 2012
- United States Artist Fellow | 2012 | Kate Orff, Founder & Partner
- ASLA-NY Award - Collaborative Design Category | 2012 | 103rd Street Community Garden
- ASLA-NY Award - Planning, Analysis, Research & Communications Category | 2012 | Confluence: Portal to the Point
- Kaohsiung Maritime Culture & Popular Music Center Competition, 3rd Prize | 2011
- Named “TED Women: Reshaping the Future” | 2010 | Kate Orff, Founder & Partner
- National ASLA Award - Communications Category | 2010 | Safari 7 | Safari 7
- Art Commission City of New York Award for Excellence | 2009 | Zerega Avenue EMS Station Green Roof | Zerega Avenue EMS Station Green Roof
- National ASLA Award - Communications Category | 2008 | Bird-Safe Building Guidelines
- PA Award | 2008 | Taichung Gateway Park
- ASLA-NY Award - Planning and Communications Category | 2007 | Bird-Safe Building Guidelines
- The Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award | 2007 | Coney Island Aquarium Perimeter Vision Design
- ASLA-NY President’s Leadership Award | 2006 | Elena Brescia, Partner
- Art Commission City of New York Award for Excellence | 2006 | Glen Oaks Branch Library
- AIA NY Merit Award | 2006 | Glen Oaks Branch Library