Students from the University of Georgia College of Environment and Design earned top honors at the 2026 ASLA Georgia Awards Gala, receiving individual recognition for academic excellence and leadership as well as awards for projects that help build the profession.
Presented by the Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the annual awards celebrate outstanding achievement in landscape architecture and recognize students whose work demonstrates the profession’s potential to strengthen communities and improve the environment.
ASLA Georgia State Honor Awards
UGA CED Student Award
The ASLA Georgia State Honor Awards are among the Chapter’s most enduring symbols of excellence. Selected by the ASLA Georgia Executive Committee, the awards recognize individuals and organizations whose influence extends beyond a single project or year and whose contributions help shape the future of landscape architecture in Georgia.
Each year, the UGA CED Student Award honors an ASLA Georgia student member who combines academic excellence with leadership, volunteerism, mentorship and active participation in the profession. Following strong recommendations from CED faculty, the Chapter recognized two students for the first time. One student from each of the College’s accredited landscape architecture programs.
Zach Sanchez received the Student Award for the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program, and Emmie Harvard received the Student Award for the Master of Landscape Architecture program.
ASLA Student Honor and Merit Awards
Six CED students also received ASLA Student Honor and Merit Awards, national recognitions presented annually to students whose work exemplifies excellence in design, creativity, technical skill and innovation. Each accredited landscape architecture program nominates students for consideration. A cohort of professional jurors assembled by ASLA Georgia then evaluates CED’s nominees and recognizes students for their accomplishments and promise within the profession.
Student Merit Award Recipients:
- Nishad Kute
- Shannon Gauger
Student Honor Award Recipients:
- Paige Garvin
- Treasa McHugh
- Charlotte Gidley
- Emily Harvard
ASLA Georgia Student Work Awards
CED students also received two Honor Awards and four Merit Awards in the ASLA Georgia Student Work Awards. The winning projects demonstrate the breadth of work underway across the College, from ecological design and public education to digital fabrication, healthcare access and memorial landscapes.
Honor Awards
Flow, Form and Co-Production
Boyu Huang (UGA MLA), Yu Zhou (UGA MLA), Emilie Hebert (LSU MLA), Laura RamosRamirez (LSU MLA), Catherine Frampton (LSU MLA), and Hongyi Luo (Rhode Island School of Design MLA), with Qiong Wang (UGA) and Yao Wang (LSU) as advisors
Developed through a collaboration among the University of Georgia, Louisiana State University and Rhode Island School of Design, “Flow, Form and Co-Production” proposes a more connected and resilient future for the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. Built on former wetlands, the community faces flooding, extreme heat and fragmented public spaces intensified by urbanization.
The project reconnects ecological and social systems through the movement of water, materials and people. A network of green belts and corridors links southern open spaces with the Mississippi River waterfront, creating an integrated park and wetland system. Circular material reuse and emerging fabrication technologies support adaptable landscape infrastructure and community-responsive public spaces. Together, these strategies offer a flexible framework for creating a more resilient, inclusive and connected urban landscape.
Root and Relationship: Sharing the Complexities of Planting Design Beyond the Studio
MLA students Emmie Harvard, Aedan Rosolia, Marne Smith, and Abby Burts; MLA alum Rachel Dingley; and BLA alumni Dailey Jackson and Jessica Spires, with Associate Professor Jessica Fernandez, PhD student Ruiqi Yang and Outreach Director Jennifer Lewis as advisors
“Root and Relationship” began as a planting design studio investigation into the ways plant combinations support beauty, biodiversity, seasonal change and ecological function. Through field observation, precedent research and graphic synthesis, students learned to understand planting design as a dynamic living system.
The project later expanded into a public outreach experience for approximately 275 tenth-grade students visiting UGA through Experience UGA. CED students translated their research into accessible visual narratives, educational posters, flora and fauna cards and an interactive activity in which participants used yarn to map relationships between plants and associated species. By physically constructing a web of ecological connections, participants discovered that designed plantings can provide essential environmental benefits in addition to their visual appeal.
The project strengthened CED students’ leadership and communication skills while encouraging future environmental stewards to look more closely at the landscapes around them. “Root and Relationship” also received a 2026 ASLA National Student Honor Award in the Communications category.
Merit Awards
Just Green Enough: Connecting Cultural Nodes of Atlanta Highway
Paige Garvin, Liam Silk, Andres Pina, Lauren Anderson, and Srushti Sevak
“Just Green Enough” proposes a community-centered approach to the Atlanta Highway corridor in Gainesville, Georgia. The team used interactive mini-games as an inclusive surveying method, placing them throughout the corridor for one week to gather input from residents of the area’s predominantly Hispanic, lower-income and socially vulnerable community.
The responses revealed a vibrant community that values its existing identity and is resistant to dramatic change. In response, the students developed modular design components that can adapt to residents’ priorities while helping remediate pollutants associated with industries along the corridor. Rather than displacing the automotive and industrial businesses central to the area’s history and economy, the project explores how ecological improvements and expanded community outreach could help those businesses and the surrounding community thrive.
Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Ideation and Digital Fabrication for Adaptive Living Shoreline Infrastructure
Benton Kleiber (BLA), representing BLA students in the Advanced Landscape Ecology course, with Qiong Wang (UGA) and Yao Wang (LSU) as advisors
This project explores how artificial intelligence and digital fabrication can serve as meaningful tools for ecological design. In an Advanced Landscape Ecology course, third-year BLA students developed modular living shoreline concepts for coastal sites experiencing erosion, flooding and sea-level rise.
Beginning with hand-drawn sketches, students used AI to expand their design explorations before translating selected concepts into three-dimensional models and physical prototypes created through 3D printing. The resulting designs investigate how adaptive shoreline infrastructure can support habitat, reduce wave energy and strengthen coastal resilience. The project demonstrates the potential of emerging technology to broaden creative exploration while keeping human judgment and environmental responsibility at the center of the design process.
MAPPING THE GAP: Translating Global Maternal and Child Deserts and Social Vulnerability into a Specialized Liaison Planning Framework in North-East Georgia
Munei Joanna Waliuba (MUPD student; now PhD), with Qiong Wang as advisor
“MAPPING THE GAP” reimagines healthcare access through design, planning and spatial analysis, addressing disparities in maternal, child and youth care across Northeast Georgia’s 12-county health district. Using GIS-based suitability modeling, the project identifies “care deserts” by evaluating equity, accessibility and service viability to prioritize locations for intervention.
Rather than focusing solely on hospitals and traditional healthcare facilities, the project proposes a scalable network of community-based care centers that would integrate preventive care, care coordination and social services closer to where people live. By reducing travel burdens, strengthening regional connectivity and aligning land-use planning with public health policy, the framework demonstrates how planning and design can advance health equity. Its interdisciplinary approach offers a replicable, evidence-based model with potential applications well beyond Northeast Georgia.
Grounds of Reverence: Honoring the Legacy of the Triple Nickels’ Graduation Site Through Memorial Park Design
Rachel Dingley
Located at the historic graduation site of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the first all-Black airborne unit in the U.S. Army, “Grounds of Reverence” transforms an underused four-acre landscape into a memorial park honoring the enduring legacy of the “Triple Nickels.”
Guided by the principles of reverence, recreation and resilience, the design commemorates the unit’s 17 graduates through engraved stonework and a grove of 17 Ginkgo trees. Shaded gathering areas, natural play spaces, fitness stations and flexible lawns support military families and installation life. Rain gardens, native plantings, expanded tree canopy and permeable surfaces improve stormwater management, reduce heat and enhance biodiversity. Developed with military stakeholders and UGA partners, the project brings together cultural commemoration and ecological performance while advancing social equity, strengthening collective memory and supporting installation readiness.
Together, this year’s individual and project awards reflect the creativity, leadership and range of expertise CED students bring to the profession. Their success at the ASLA Georgia Awards Gala also demonstrates how work developed at UGA can contribute to larger conversations about environmental resilience, community well-being and the future of landscape architecture.
