Membership
Emerging Professionals Design Competition
2025 ASLA Emerging Professionals Design Competition: Beyond Boundaries
The ASLA Associate Advisory Committee, dedicated to serving and nationally representing emerging professionals of the ASLA, is launching a first-of-its-kind design competition for landscape architecture emerging professionals, offering a platform for early-career designers to engage with timely challenges in open space design, climate, and social justice. Mirroring the theme of the 2025 ASLA conference, the inaugural Emerging Professionals Design Competition invites emerging professional ASLA members to reimagine a new design for Harmony Circle in New Orleans, Louisiana with the theme “Beyond Boundaries.”
Project Site
Harmony Circle is a significant, but underutilized urban node in New Orleans, a city known for its layered history, vibrant cultural identity, and ongoing work against systemic inequality and climate risk. In the spirit of designing beyond boundaries, participants are invited to explore how landscape architecture and design can reframe boundaries--physical, social, historical, and ecological--as opportunities for reconnection and regeneration.
The historic traffic circle, which sits at the convergence of several neighborhoods just south of the New Orleans’ French Quarter, is a microcosm of the city’s layered tensions: colonial legacies and cultural resilience, car-centric infrastructure and pedestrian needs, racial and economic divides across adjacent communities, and coastal vulnerability and climate adaptation. Formerly known as Lee Circle, the site was constructed in the mid-19th century as part of the city’s expansion and formal urban design, modeled after European-style boulevards and circles.
In 1884, the circle became home to a prominent statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and stood as a symbol of white supremacy until the statue was removed after decades of protest in 2017--one of several Confederate monuments taken down across New Orleans as the city reckoned with its racial past. The removal marked a pivotal moment in the city’s landscape of memory and created an opportunity to reimagine the site’s civic role.
In 2021, the New Orleans City Council officially renamed the site Harmony Circle following community-led efforts. This new name reflects a desire to transform a space of division into one of unity, though the site remains largely unchanged physically. Today, Harmony Circle stands at a crossroads, both literally and symbolically. Its central location between Uptown and Central City, its proximity to transit lines and cultural institutions, and its unresolved form make it an ideal canvas for rethinking what a post-monument public space can be.
Entrants are tasked to think beyond the boundaries of the given site, clearly defining the unique extents of their design intervention and challenging Harmony Circle’s current role as a car-dominated traffic feature. Participants are encouraged to take the boundaries of Harmony Circle and expand and/or compress it in order to coherently fit the needs of their conceptual design framework. While entries will be judged based on conceptual design rather than constructability, winning proposals must remain grounded to site and sensitive to historical, sociocultural, and ecological contexts. Designers may consider reclaiming space from vehicular use for community programming, integrating stormwater management strategies and native ecology, honoring the cultural memory and legacy of New Orleans’ Afro-Creole identity, and integrating intergenerational use and climate resilience.
Eligibility
This design competition is open to emerging professional ASLA members in the field of landscape architecture or allied fields with less than 10 years of experience. All individuals participating in a team must be current ASLA members.
- Participants must be ASLA members with less than 10 years of professional experience.
- Entries may be made up of individuals or teams of up to three (3) people. Each individual or team can only submit one (1) entry.
- Participants can only submit one entry per applicant; an individual may not submit more than one entry or be a part of multiple teams.
- Student ASLA members entering their final year (Bachelor’s or Master’s) in Fall 2025 may participate.
- Participation is free.
Entries must follow all eligibility rules. Submissions that do not meet the requirements will not be considered.
Competition Schedule
- Launch: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
- Submission Deadline: Thursday, July 31, 11:59 pm ET
- Jury Deliberation: August
- Winners Announced: Friday, September 12
Awards
- First Prize: Full registration to ASLA 2025 (New Orleans) or 2026 (Los Angeles) Conference for individual or winning team + Publication on ASLA channels
- Second + Third Prizes: Publication on ASLA channels
Submission Requirements
The Jury will only review proposals that are digitally submitted through the Slide Room competition platform by the date and time of competition closing. No late submissions will be accepted for review by the jury.
- Submission Requirements:
- One (1) B2 board (24”x36”, portrait format), submitted in high quality format; [File name: “EPDesignComp_ProjectTitle”]
- Project title (on board)
- 300-word maximum explanatory text (on board)
- Submit only PDF files less than 10MB
- Do not include identifying information on images, file names, or explanatory text. This includes information that would hint at individuals, schools, firm affiliations, organizations, etc. Entries that include any identifiable information will be disqualified.
- No physical submissions will be accepted
- Submitted materials should not be released to the public or other media prior to the announcement of the winning entries.
- ASLA is not liable for any costs incurred by any entrant in the preparation of a submission.
- By entering into the competition, you warrant that your submission does not include any images or text infringing on third-party copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights.
- By submitting your entry, you hereby grant ASLA a non-exclusive irrevocable, perpetual, transferable, royalty-free and worldwide license and right to use, reproduce, distribute, transfer, license, sub-license, reprint, publish and display your Entry, or any part thereof, either alone or as part of a compilation with other works, electronically or otherwise, on social media platforms, on ASLA’s websites; in Landscape Architecture Magazine, in ASLA blogs, emails, brochures, and newsletters; and in presentations (including without limitation, live, recorded and/or streaming presentations, broadcasts, conferences, events, and webinars) given by ASLA and its National representatives. ASLA reserves the right to edit any and all submission text for clarity and concision.
Submission Review Criteria
The ASLA Emerging Professionals Design Competition jury will review, evaluate, and score submissions using the following criteria:
- Alignment with Theme – "Beyond Boundaries"
Demonstrates a compelling response to the competition theme through design that challenges, reinterprets, or transcends physical, social, historical, and ecological boundaries.
- Strength of Conceptual Design
Presents a bold and imaginative vision with clear intent, innovation, and coherence.
- Site Responsiveness
Thoughtfully engages with the unique context of Harmony Circle, reflecting sensitivity to its layered history, cultural identity, and spatial dynamics.
- Social and Cultural Relevance
Honors New Orleans' Afro-Creole legacy and addresses social justice, equity, and community needs in an inclusive and meaningful way.
- Ecological and Climate Responsiveness
Integrates nature-based solutions and climate resilience strategies, including stormwater management, native planting, and adaptability to future environmental conditions.
- Clarity and Quality of Presentation
Communicates the design vision clearly and powerfully through graphics, explanatory text, and overall visual presentation.
Project Site and Context Maps
Download these project site and context maps to support your competition submission.
SUBMIT TODAY
The ASLA Emerging Professionals Design Competition program of the ASLA Fund.
The ASLA Fund is the 501(c)(3) charitable foundation of the American Society of Landscape Architects, supported by the tax-deductible contributions of ASLA members and other individuals and organizations, and committed to the careful stewardship and artful design of our cultural and natural environment. The Fund’s mission is to expand the body of knowledge of the landscape architecture profession and increase public understanding of environmental and land-use issues and principles. Its work supports public and professional education and outreach, professional and student awards programs, and special projects that provide real-world demonstrations of core values like the ASLA Green Roof.