Congratulations to Jingyi ‘Jessy’ Qui (BLA 2019) and Zichen Liu (BLA2019), recipients of project awards from the 2019 Virginia Chapter American Society of Landscape Architects Professional and Student Awards Program!

Jessy Qui received a Merit Award in General Design for her senior project work, Nonliteral Narratives: Recovering Landscape Thickness. The project, located in on Staten Island NY, gives a fresh perspective to view and design a commemorative loos(e)cape in 4 main layers (people, culture, ecology, and system). This grand perspective is inspired by James Corner’s notion of “recovering” and Ian McHarg’s idea of “layers and thickness”. The project is trying to discover how many layers were embedded beneath a landscape that reflect the past and present, and to explore how many layers can be proposed on top of the landscape that informs the future. Professor Dean Bork served as Jessy’s senior project advisor.

Zichen Liu received a Merit Award in Analysis and Planning for her senior project work, SHAN-SHUI: A Framework for Urban Expansion within a Mountain and Water Landscape. Liu proposed an innovative strategy to accommodate urban expansion in a 2641-acre rural district on the periphery of the rapidly urbanizing city of Hangzhou. Low-lying land in this area has been farmed for centuries by controlling water inundation through a system of dikes and drainage channels that form a “polder” landscape. The proposed development framework aims to achieve a harmonious rural/urban spatial integration; to preserve and revitalize fundamental social relationships that characterize daily life in rural villages, while accepting population expansion; and to improve local economies by enhancing traditional agricultural practices. Professor Wendy Jacobson served as Zichen’s advisor.