ASLA Honors Award

from Design 7 Landscape Architecture Studio with Prof. Kimberlee Douglas

he PA-DE Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recently announced their 2021 Chapter Awards. In the Student Design Awards Program, the Central States ASLA jury gave the Honor Award in the General Design Category to Jefferson landscape architecture student Benjamin Nardi ’21, for his project titled “Finding Beauty in the Commonplace.” The project focuses on “the wonderment and beauty of hidden ecological systems that are revealed in non-traditional ways by providing access above, below, and on the ground level.

​To “encourage and recognize excellence in landscape architecture and to demonstrate to the public the variety, scope and value of landscape architectural services,” the Pennsylvania Delaware Chapter of the ASLA, encompassing four geographic sections (Delaware, Eastern PA, Central PA, and Western PA), welcomes professionals and students to participate in their annual awards program.

The Student Awards Program invites currently enrolled students and recent graduates of a landscape architecture program in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Categories include General Design, Residential Design, Analysis and Planning, Research, Communications, and Student Collaboration.
Benjamin Nardi
B.S. Landscape Architecture '21
Listening to Oh Devil by Electric Guest

How did I chose this major? Well I was always interested in drawing and art and I was fascinated by being outside and innately curious about how systems work. I was originally interested in landscape engineering and then found landscape architecture, which was a perfect fit for what I wanted to do. PhilaU, at the time, was good because it’s a smaller school and I didn't want to go to a big state school with like 30,000 kids. And I could run cross country track here as well. I wasn’t sure what to expect coming into this major, I was expecting to design parks and stuff like that and I didn’t realize how important the community aspect was to me until later in the program. You’re so heavily involved in the community aspect within all of our studios, so that was something that I really found passion in. And what am I doing next? I wanna go out west and explore and see new people and new landscapes and what not. That’s the goal but if not Philadelphia is an awesome city as well. ​
How do you amplify the VOICE's of communities and their environment, ​what projects of your academic career have you done this specifically?
Wetland Step: Seasonal Section Perspectives
The meadow is filled with life, changing throughout the seasons providing year-round beauty. The wetland steps allows for visitors to study the large varieties of plants and wildlife inhabiting it. 
Site Section
The section highlights the three different landscape typologies that are found on site. The elevated walk is shown weaving throughout the site connecting the different areas. 
What's your design process? How do you craft such realistic renderings?
I always start drawing by hand, and that sometimes informs the design or informs another viewpoint I want to explore. I’ll start hand drawing whether it’s in plan, section or perspective and that’s what people don’t see as much compared to the realistic graphics or final graphics but there’s a lot of hand iterations before. But once those are developed I’ll start with CAD for digital line work and then rhino or sketch up whichever is quicker for massing. I’ll import that into Lumion which has been the easiest for me and I’ll import plants, materials, and textures- textures are important and then render from there. You can choose different times of day. I notice with Lumion it gets kind of a plastic look so I always take it into Photoshop afterwards and from there add people and more textures and what not. And finally, I use Illustrator or Indesign to finish off  any renderings I want to make into diagrams. It’s a lot of tinkering and messing with things, trying new things, or a lot of times searching on the internet for hours to find the right person to fit the scene. Overall it’s a fun process. ​

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SPACEWORK is a student produced site; the views expressed here are those of the students. SPACEWORK is supported by Thomas Jefferson University’s College of Architecture and the Built Environment.
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