TREES ALIVE!: Techniques, Details, Traditions

Honor Award

Student Collaboration

Tokyo and Kanazawa, Tokyo Prefecture and Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan Chicago and Columbus, Illinois and Indiana, United States Philadelphia and New York, Pennsylvania and New York, United States
Mohammad Arabmazar, Associate ASLA; Mariannys Lopez, Student ASLA; Brendan Hall, Student ASLA; Viona Chiang; Ruth Muniz; Jonathan Cienfuegos, Student ASLA; Mistika Jimenez; Brenda Cardenas; Caleb Hadley, Student ASLA; Erika Aoki; Sakuro Tajima; Reiju Tomita; Shuta Miura; Michell Ruiz; Subi Lee; BreAnne Long;
Faculty Advisors: Ron Henderson, FASLA; Susan Weiler, FASLA; Toru Mitani; Tetsuki Nakakura;
Illinois Institute of Technology
University of Tokyo

TREES ALIVE! is a collaborative research and travel exchange between American and Japanese landscape architecture programs.

Two booklets (over 250 pages total) documented the techniques, construction details, and cultural traditions of urban trees in Japan and the U.S.

Image Credit: Mohammad Arabmazar, Ron Henderson
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

1 of 16

Workshops, lectures, and field research with experts in Tokyo and Kanazawa

Master Gardener FUJIMOTO Kurato explains indigenous hoozue branch supports at a revered 200-year-old red pine tree in Kenroku-en Garden, Kanazawa.

Image Credit: Ron Henderson
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

2 of 16

Field research in Tokyo - sacred forest

Shinto Priest ITO Moriyasu guided the American students through the sacred 100-year-old successional forest of Meiji Jingu Shrine, Tokyo.

Image Credit: Brendan Tyler Hall, Ron Henderson
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

3 of 16

Field Research in Tokyo - imperial trees

Two imperial sites - the ceremonial zelkova-lined street, Omotesando, and the Imperial forecourt, Kokyo Gaien with hundreds of pines, were documented.

Image Credit: Brendan Tyler Hall, Ruth Muniz
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

4 of 16

Field Research in Tokyo - urban forests

Otemachi Forest was transplanted plot from Chiba Prefecture to Tokyo and Azabudai Hills is a $4B urban district with high technology planting systems.

Image Credit: Caleb Hadley, Viona Chiang
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

5 of 16

Field Research in Tokyo - Japanese faculty projects

Okutama Forest Therapy is a shinrin-yoku trail through a cryptomeria forest and Shinagawa Central Garden is an urban park with over 100 katsura trees.

Image Credit: Caleb Hadley, BreAnne Long
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

6 of 16

Field research in Kanazawa - historic and contemporary gardens

Kenroku-en is famed for indigenous hoozue and yukitsuri techniques. The Suzuki Museum water garden is animated by willows overhanging the garden wall.

Image Credit: Mariannys Lopez, Subi Lee
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

7 of 16

Field research in Chicago and Columbus - Japanese students and faculty in America

Japanese students and faculty survey the relationship between the Edith Farnsworth Glass House and the riparian trees that surround it.

Image Credit: Ron Henderson
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

8 of 16

Field research in Chicago and Columbus - trees and ground characteristics

Komorebi, the term for the character of tree shadows on the ground, and the structure of the ground (flush, curb) were inventoried in various sites.

Image Credit: Mitani Landscape Lab
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

9 of 16

Field research in Chicago and Columbus - trees and architecture

Species scale and growth habit determine site-scale landscape relationships between trees and architecture at North Christian Church and Lurie Garden.

Image Credit: Mitani Landscape Lab
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

10 of 16

Workshops, archival research at offices, interviews, and field research in Philadelphia and New York

Professional offices hosted archival research, shared construction drawings, explained tree planting techniques, and led site walks of their projects.

Image Credit: Mohammad Arabmazar
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

11 of 16

Field research in Philadelphia - designing the urban surface

Original student isometric drawings document trees and soil at Andropogon’s Shoemaker Green and D.I.R.T. Studio’s Urban Outfitters Headquarters.

Image Credit: Mohammad Arabmazar
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

12 of 16

Field research and interview in Philadelphia - an overhead viaduct of trees

Studio Bryan Hanes led a tour of their Rail Park and sat for an interview on construction technology and selecting the right tree for the right place.

Image Credit: Mohammad Arabmazar, Studio Bryan Hanes
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

13 of 16

Field research and interview in Philadelphia - a place for people and trees

Dilworth Park at Philadelphia City Hall is constructed with complex on-structure technologies for both trees and intense public use.

Image Credit: Mohammad Arabmazar, OLIN
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

14 of 16

Field research and interview in New York - ecological expression at Hudson River

Shallow-rooted birch trees thrive in the connected soil volumes and lightweight soils of Pier 26, constructed on a former pier along the Hudson River.

Image Credit: Mohammad Arabmazar, OLIN
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

15 of 16

Field research in New York - trees in highly trafficked spaces

Conservation of legacy planetrees at Bryant Park and thriving buckeyes at Columbus Circle give evidence that well-designed details keep trees alive.

Image Credit: Mohammad Arabmazar, OLIN
Members of the Press: Please submit high-resolution image requests to press@asla.org . Awards Images Terms of Use

16 of 16

“

Beautiful book! The research the team conducted feels very thorough and collaborative. Exciting exchange of insights across-cultural camaraderie and learnings that this project represents.

”

- 2025 Awards Jury

Project Credits

Kurato Fujimoto
Master Gardener

Moriyasu Ito
Shinto Priest, Meiji Jingu

Naomi Sakuragi Ono
Chiba University and Earthworks Design

Hiroki Yamaguchi
Landscape Architect, Mori Building Co.

Aki Omi
Office MA

Tatiana Guider, Hector Ortiz, Suzy Strickler
Chicago Botanic Garden

Rafael Rosa, Maeve Callaghan
Lincoln Park Conservancy

John Morello PhD, Scott Mehaffey, Christina Heidrich, Alyssa Arnoff
Edith Farnsworth House

Bryan Hanes, Rebekah Armstrong
Studio Bryan Hanes

Demetrios Staurinos, Judy Venonsky
OLIN

Project Statement

TREES ALIVE! is a collaborative research and travel exchange between American and Japanese landscape architecture programs to study the techniques, details, and cultural traditions for trees in contemporary urban landscapes. Students participated in collaborative technical workshops and visits to significant gardens and landscapes to investigate urban tree planting and legacy tree conservation in Tokyo, Kanazawa, Chicago, Columbus (Indiana), Philadelphia, and New York. Two technical booklets - one for Japan sites and one for the United States sites - documented 30 gardens and landscapes in 270 pages for this externally-funded research.

Project Narrative

Students and faculty from the American university traveled to Japan and students from the Japanese university traveled to the United States with financial support from a private donor whose commitment to both trees and Japan-US exchange made the publishing and travel for both universities possible.The course welcomed Japanese and American graduate students in both landscape architecture and architecture as well as American undergraduate students in architecture.

Students and faculty spent 10 days in each country where they met with a range of experts - landscape architects, real estate developers, a Shinto priest, and others. For each research site, students drew original isometric construction details that document techniques for urban tree planting and technologies - soil media, porous pavements, suspended pavements, expanded cell slope stabilization, tree supports such as hoozue (branch supports) and yukitsuri (rope tenting), and the relationships between pavement and root zones, among other strategies for tree health and vitality.

Approximately 320 plant species are planted on structure with, at most, 1.5 meters of soil - and usually less. The strategies for the plants to thrive include careful calibration of plant sizes, root structure, constructed soil profiles, structural alignments, soil stabilization cells on steeply sloping rooftops, and ground surfaces that resist soil compaction. - landscape architect YAMAGUCHI Hiroki speaking about his work at Azabudai Hills, Tokyo

The research also explored the characteristics of individual tree species and their expression in design. Over 100 katsura trees at Shinagawa Central Station (Tokyo) create an intricate texture of shadows on the pavement - a condition known in Japanese as komorebi, the pattern of shadows beneath trees when sunlight shines through the leaves. Japanese Master Gardener Fujimoto led American students through Kenroku-en (Kanazawa) and demonstrated the construction and aesthetic demands of hoozue, or branch supports, on the legacy pine trees in the garden. The positioning of the hoozue follows the structural lines of force of the branches so the living forces of the trees are expressed in their placement. At Sister Cities Park (Philadelphia), a stand of black birches - with fluttering leaves and textured bark - animate the children’s playground. These birches are planted among a flock of boulders to help prevent soil compaction as children play amongst the trees.

TREES ALIVE! BOOKLETS

The research was compiled into two booklets (270 pages total) - simple bound 7” x 11” full color editions. Each research site was formatted with 3 spreads (6 pages). The first page included a 500 word introduction to the tree techniques, details, and traditions of each site and the second page was a full bleed photograph of the tree(s) that were researched at each site.

The third page was a plan of the tree planting detail overlaid in white over a textural photograph of the tree leaves; juxtaposing design technology with the living character of the species. Opposite, each student drew an original isometric drawing of the tree showing the underground soil or construction system. The last spread, pages 5 and 6, are photographs of the trees and research sites in their urban context. Additional research, notes, references, lecture and field trip photos, and introductory essays augmented the TREES ALIVE! research in the booklets.

Plant List:

Acer palmatum
Acer pycnanthum
Betula platyphylla
Cercidiphyllum japonicum
Cornus kousa
Cryptomeria japonica
Ginkgo biloba
Quercus glandulifera
Quercus myrsinifolia
Pinus densiflora
Pinus thunbergii
Prunus x yedoensis
Salix babylonica
Zanthoxylum piperitum
Zelkova serrata
Aesculus hippocastanum
Aesculus flava
Acer rubrum
Betula nigra
Cercis canadensis
Fraxinus pennsylvanica
Gleditsia triacanthos
Gymnocladus dioicus
Liquidambar styraciflua
Liriodendron tulipifera
Magnolia virginiana
Magnolia x soulangeana
Platanus occidentalis
Platanus x acerifolia
Pinus strobus
Prunus x yedoensis
Rhus copallina
Quercus bicolor
Quercus imbricaria
Quercus rubra
Taxodium distichum
Ulmus americana