Alumnus Wins Prestigious Landscape Architecture Award

“For over a century, large stretches of the scenic Russian River have been dominated by industry, leaving small towns like Healdsburg, Calif., with a broken link to the community and the beauty and resources of the river. With over 60% of the town’s riverfront occupied by a gravel processing facility on a site known as the Healdsburg Bendway, virtually no space is available for the needs of the people or environment.

The Bendway Park proposal revitalizes a 100-acre industrial site along the river. Focusing on the issues of public access, economic viability and environmental restoration, this proposal confronts the mismanagement of the Healdsburg riverfront with a vision of a practical and sustainable alternative. The unique site conditions and extensive input from local citizens have resulted in the transformation of this site into a vibrant post-industrial riverfront that will fulfill the needs of people and environment for generations.”—Project Brief, Bendway Park, Eric Arneson

Eric Arneson, BFA Landscape Architecture

Arneson graduated from theAcademy with his BFA in Landscape Architecture in 2016, and is now a landscape designer at Antonio Bava Landscape Architects in San Francisco.

Each year, the American Society of Landscape Architects Student Awards provide a glimpse into the future of the profession. Student entries in the General Design category envision site-specific works of landscape architecture, and the jury considers the quality of design, design context, environmental sensitivity and sustainability, and design value to the client and to other designers. In his project narrative, Arneson described his project location, scope and size, site and context investigation, design program, design intent, materials and installation methods, environmental impact concerns, collaboration with the client and other designers, and other significant issues.

The scope of Arneson’s accomplishment is compelling. He competed against more than 250 students, many of them from graduate programs at well-established schools of landscape architecture, including RISD, Berkeley and the University of Toronto. Arneson and other winners will be honored in an awards presentation ceremony at the ASLA 2016 Annual Meeting & Expo in New Orleans in October.

Project Gallery

“Those who enter this park will be participants, not mere observers. A really smart approach to the design of what had been an industrial site. And tourists will say, ‘We’ve got to stop here.’”—2016 ASLA Awards Jury