News

ASLA 2025 Landmark Award. Restoring the Glory, the Restoration of Forest Park. St Louis, Missouri. HOK / Forest Park Forever

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced that Restoring the Glory, the Restoration of Forest Park, St. Louis, designed by the landscape architecture firm HOK in Washington, D.C., has won the ASLA 2025 Landmark Award. 

The Landmark Award is bestowed upon a distinguished landscape architecture project completed between 15 and 50 years ago that retains its original design integrity and contributes many benefits to the surrounding community.  

At 1,370 acres, Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the U.S. The site of the 1904 World’s Fair, funding and maintenance challenges in the 1970s and ‘80s degraded the park’s quality, rendering it less functional and unsafe. In 2000, the nonprofit conservancy Forest Park Forever (FPF) engaged the design team at HOK to restore some of the park’s most iconic landmarks in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the Fair. The restoration modernized amenities, reintroduced natural systems, and reconnected visitors to the beloved public space, transforming it into an area for recreation, sports, civic and cultural events, and more.   

“Forest Park is the nation’s largest urban park, while always remaining at the heart of St. Louis. HOK’s restoration honors George Kessler’s original vision while embracing modern sustainability and resiliency,” said Brian Jencek, Director of Planning, HOK. “By restoring ecosystems, improving access, and creating inclusive spaces, we’ve prepared the park to serve its community—and future generations—as a vibrant, democratic landscape.” 

The restoration of Forest Park is a nationally recognized success story. With more than 15 million visitors annually, the park is the sixth most visited urban park in the U.S. and was recently named the best city park in USA Today’s readers' choice awards for the second consecutive year. The park continues to be recognized as a national destination and the pride of its city and region. 

“The restorations of Government Hill and Emerson Grand Basin have stood the test of time and delighted millions of Forest Park visitors for a generation. Forest Park Forever was proud to partner with HOK and the City of St. Louis on these signature projects, which remain wonderful examples of landscape architecture for the entire St. Louis region to enjoy,” said Lesley Hoffarth, P.E., President and Executive Director of Forest Park Forever. 

The Landmark Award was announced as part of the ASLA 2025 Professional Awards. Thirty-five winners in multiple categories showcase innovation and represent the highest level of achievement in the landscape architecture profession. Read more in the awards press release.

Award recipients and their clients will be honored in person at the awards presentation ceremony at the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture in New Orleans, October 10-13. Media are invited to attend; please email press@asla.org for credentials. For more information, visit www.aslaconference.com.

Members of the media please contact press@asla.org to request hi-res images.

Award Categories

General Design

Award of Excellence
​​​A Floating Forest: Fish Tail Park in Nanchang City
Nanchang, China
Turenscape 

Honor Award
The Beach at Elliott Bay
Seattle, Washington 
SurfaceDesign, Inc. 

Honor Award
Guitou Wetland Park: Reclaiming Public Space for the Rural Forgotten
Shaoguan City, China 
YXDesigners 

Honor Award
The Ellen DeGeneres Campus for the Dian Fossey Fund
Kinigi, Rwanda 
MASS Design Group + TEN x TEN 

Honor Award
More than Human: A Land Bridge for Cultural and Wildlife Connections
San Antonio, Texas
STIMSON 

Honor Award
The Shepherd Arts Park: Community, Art, Play
Detroit, Michigan
OSD – Office of Strategy & Design 

Honor Award
A Walk in the Woods: Re-Wilding, Experimentation and Pedagogy at UMass
Amherst, Massachusetts
STIMSON   

Honor Award
Waterloo Park: Reclaiming Public Space in the Center of Austin
Austin, Texas
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. 

Honor Award
Mill 19: A Catalytic Postindustrial Landscape
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
TEN x TEN + D.I.R.T. Studio 

Urban Design

Honor Award
Jiaxing Station Park
Zhejiang, China
Z'scape + MAD 

Honor Award
Shanghai Underpass Hubs: Bridging Divides, Building Community
Shanghai, China
FISH DESIGN 

Honor Award
China Basin Park: A Dynamic Urban Connector
San Francisco, California
SCAPE 

Honor Award
Generosity of Place: Water Street Tampa’s Continuous Canopy
Tampa, Florida
Reed Hilderbrand LLC 

Honor Award
​​Turning Gray into Green: Meishe River Greenway and Fengxiang Park​
Haikou City, China
Turenscape 

Honor Award
UNIT.City: Transforming an Industrial Zone into an Innovation District
Kyiv, Ukraine
KOTSIUBA 

Residential Design

Award of Excellence
And the Wild Comes Right up to the Door
Princeton, Massachusetts
STIMSON 

Honor Award
The Little Project: Unlocking the Potential of an Everyday Urban Lot
St. Paul, Minnesota
Ping Design LLC 

Honor Award 
Huckleberry Perch
Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design 

Honor Award 
Inez Point: Embracing an Old Growth Forest
Whitefish, Montana
Design Workshop, Inc. 

Honor Award
Springy Banks
East Hampton, New York
LaGuardia Design Group 

Honor Award
Sendero Verde
New York, New York
AECOM LAUD NYC 

Honor Award
Norweta
Chicago, Illinois
Site Design Group, Ltd. Honor Award

Analysis & Planning

Award of Excellence 
Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park: A Landscape of Healing and Renewal
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Design Collective with Carmichael Associates 

Honor Award
Somerville Pollinator Action Plan: A Pollinator’s Guide to City Living
Somerville, Massachusetts
Offshoots, Inc. 

Honor Award 
Rural Abundance & Vitality: The Chaobai River Basin
Tianjin Municipality, China
Sasaki Associates, Inc  

Honor Award
Sea2City: Reimagining Reconciliation in Design and Policy
Vancouver, Canada
Mithun + ONE, and PWL Partnership 

Communications

Honor Award
Greening Five Points: Growing a Grassroots Movement in Denver
Denver, Colorado 
Design Workshop + Design Workshop Foundation 

Honor Award
WORKS with Nature: Low-Carbon Adaptation for a Changing World
Boston, Massachusetts
Climate Positive Design 

Honor Award
Playbook for the Pyrocene
SWA Group 

Honor Award
Empty Pedestals
Southwestern U.S.
Kofi Boone, FASLA & M. Elen Deming, FASLA 

Research

Honor Award 
About Time: Adaptive Management for Coastal Salt Marshes
Stone Harbor, New Jersey
University of Pennsylvania Environmental Modeling Lab (EMLab) 

Honor Award
Charles River Floating Wetland Pilot Project: Multi-Year Findings
Boston, Massachusetts
Sasaki Associates, Inc + The Hideo Sasaki Foundation and Dr. McNamara Rome 

Honor Award
LONGQUAN MOUNTAIN Park: Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research
Sichuan, China
ZAP Associates LLC 

Jury: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design & Landmark Award

Jury Chair: Thomas Balsley, FASLA, SWA/Balsley

Members:

Jury: Analysis & Planning ASLA / IFLA Global Impact Award, Research, Communications & Landmark Award

Jury Chair: Diane Fernandez Bibeau, ASLA, City of Boston 

Members:

IFLA Representative: Monica Pallares Trujillo, IFLA America Region 

CELA Representative: Bo Zhang, ASLA, Oklahoma State University 

LAF Representative: Signe Nielsen, FASLA, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, P.C.