Award-winning commercial landscapes are defined by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and similar bodies as projects that demonstrate measurable excellence in design innovation, ecological function, and long-term maintenance viability. Studying examples of award-winning commercial landscapes gives landscape architects, designers, and property managers a concrete benchmark. Projects like Strathmore Square in Washington, D.C., Grønningen-Bispeparken in Copenhagen, and One Uptown in Austin show exactly what juries reward and why. Each project below is documented, quantified, and directly applicable to your next design or property decision.
What makes commercial landscapes award-winning?
Award juries increasingly prioritize projects that demonstrate measurable environmental impact and maintenance feasibility alongside aesthetics. That shift matters for anyone submitting a project or evaluating a design firm.
The criteria fall into three categories:
- Design innovation: Does the project integrate ecological and social features in a way that is site-specific and not generic? Juries reject designs that could work anywhere.
- Sustainability and maintenance: Christine Ten Eyck, FASLA, emphasizes that sustainable maintenance funding and lifecycle planning are non-negotiable for award-winning projects. A beautiful design that collapses under real-world budget pressure does not win.
- Quantifiable site performance: Stormwater filtration volumes, plaza square footage, and species counts give juries hard evidence of a design’s effectiveness.
“Award-winning landscapes integrate site-specific metrics like bioswale water volumes or plaza area to help stakeholders set maintenance expectations and staff allocations post-installation.”
Aesthetic, functional, and lifecycle considerations must work together. A project that excels in one area but neglects the others rarely reaches the top tier of recognition.
Top examples of award-winning commercial landscapes
The six projects below represent the best commercial landscape designs recognized in 2025 and 2026. Each one illustrates a distinct approach to the core criteria above.
1. Strathmore Square, Washington, D.C.
Strathmore Square won the 2026 ASLA Honor Award for its transit-oriented, multi-terrace design by Mahan Rykiel Associates. The project integrates water, stone, and native planting across a civic plaza, two courtyards, a penthouse level, and eight roof terraces. That layered sequence is what separates it from a standard commercial plaza.
Key features:
- Multi-terrace design inspired by the natural and cultural context of the surrounding area
- Native plant selection tied directly to the regional ecology
- Water and stone integration as both aesthetic and functional elements
- Transit-oriented layout that supports high pedestrian volumes
The project proves that connected outdoor sequences succeed when each level serves a distinct function while maintaining visual continuity.
2. Herbaceous High Street, Philadelphia
Herbaceous High Street received the APLD 2025 Silver Award and the PPA 2025 Award of Excellence. Designed by Refugia Design for a commercial clothing store’s suburban location, the project focused on low maintenance, all-season visual interest, and ecological function. That combination is rare in commercial retail settings, where maintenance budgets are often the first thing cut.
Key features:
- Plant selection prioritizing connectivity between species for ecological resilience
- All-season interest without high-input maintenance requirements
- Ecological function embedded in a retail commercial context
- Dual award recognition confirming both design and performance quality
Pro Tip: When designing for retail clients, document your plant maintenance requirements in writing before installation. Juries and property managers both want proof that the design survives a realistic maintenance budget.
3. Quincy Apartments, Albuquerque
The Quincy Apartments earned the 2025 NA Landscape Professionals Gold Award by replacing non-functional turfgrass with water-wise, sustainable landscaping. The project aligned directly with local water conservation policies, which gave it both regulatory credibility and community relevance. Lighting strategies and stone boulders added year-round visual structure without increasing water demand.
Key features:
- Full turfgrass replacement with drought-tolerant, water-wise planting
- Stone boulders used as structural landscape elements
- Lighting design that extends the landscape’s visual impact after dark
- Alignment with Albuquerque’s water conservation policy framework
This project is a direct model for property managers managing sustainable lawn care in arid or water-restricted regions.
4. One Uptown, Austin, Texas
One Uptown features a 40,000-square-foot podium amenity terrace designed by SWA/Balsley in Austin’s Uptown ATX neighborhood. The terrace links office and residential towers through a connected sequence of outdoor activity zones. That connectivity is the design’s defining achievement.
Key features:
- 40,000 sq ft of podium amenity space connecting office and residential uses
- Bike lanes, coworking courtyard, public park, swimming pool, and game areas
- Repeated design themes in seating and paving patterns to unify multiple levels
- Diverse pedestrian flows supported across a single continuous landscape
Large mixed-use projects succeed when repeated design themes unify multiple outdoor spaces rather than treating each zone as a separate project. One Uptown executes this principle at scale.
5. Grønningen-Bispeparken, Copenhagen
Grønningen-Bispeparken won the 2026 AZ Awards for landscape architecture with a design that treats stormwater as a social and ecological resource rather than a problem to hide. The project includes 18 bioswales managing up to 3,000 m³ of stormwater, four million seeds planted, and 149 trees across 23 species. Those numbers give property managers and designers a concrete performance benchmark.
Key features:
- 18 bioswales with a combined stormwater capacity of up to 3,000 m³
- Four million seeds planted across wet and dry biotopes
- 149 trees representing 23 species for biodiversity
- Social swales designed as gathering spaces, not just drainage infrastructure
Quantifying site performance like stormwater filtration capacity is now a standard expectation in top-tier award submissions. Grønningen-Bispeparken sets the benchmark for what that documentation looks like.
6. 1385 Plaza at Maritz Campus, St. Louis
1385 Plaza comprises a 57,000-square-foot native Missouri landscape designed by Lawrence Group and completed in october 2025. The project integrates outdoor work and dining spaces as part of the campus connectivity plan for Maritz, supporting employee well-being through direct access to native plantings and structured outdoor rooms.
Key features:
- 57,000 sq ft of native Missouri planting
- Outdoor work and dining spaces embedded in the landscape
- Campus connectivity as the primary design driver
- Completed october 2025, making it one of the most recent large-scale examples available
| Project | Size | Sustainability Feature | Social Space | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strathmore Square | Multi-terrace | Native planting, water integration | Civic plaza, courtyards | 2026 ASLA Honor |
| Herbaceous High Street | Retail scale | Low maintenance, ecological planting | Retail frontage | APLD 2025 Silver |
| Quincy Apartments | Residential scale | Turfgrass replacement, water-wise | Resident amenity | 2025 NA Gold |
| One Uptown | 40,000 sq ft | Connected amenity terrace | Coworking, pool, park | SWA/Balsley featured |
| Grønningen-Bispeparken | Urban district | 18 bioswales, 3,000 m³ stormwater | Social swales | 2026 AZ Awards |
| 1385 Plaza, Maritz | 57,000 sq ft | Native Missouri landscape | Outdoor work, dining | Lawrence Group 2025 |
How award-winning designs balance ecology, aesthetics, and maintenance
The most recognized commercial landscape projects treat ecology and aesthetics as the same problem, not competing priorities. Effective commercial landscape design balances ecological function with social spaces to enhance user experience and property value. That balance is not accidental. It requires deliberate decisions at the plant selection, grading, and material specification stages.
Here is how top projects achieve that balance:
- Select tough natives over ornamentals. Native plants reduce irrigation demand, support local pollinators, and lower long-term maintenance costs. Maritz Campus and Herbaceous High Street both demonstrate this at different scales.
- Design for water before aesthetics. Grønningen-Bispeparken placed bioswale placement ahead of visual layout. The social spaces emerged from the stormwater infrastructure, not the other way around.
- Document maintenance requirements at the design stage. Expert practitioners recommend prioritizing documented maintenance rationale to ensure designs endure under real-world funding and resource limitations.
- Use lighting and materials to extend value. Quincy Apartments used stone boulders and lighting to maintain visual impact through seasons without adding plant maintenance burden.
- Plan for lifecycle costs, not just installation costs. Property managers who inherit award-winning landscapes without a maintenance plan quickly lose the design’s value. Lifecycle thinking protects the investment.
Pro Tip: Ask your client for a three-year maintenance budget before finalizing plant specifications. A design that exceeds the maintenance budget by year two is a liability, not an asset.
Green landscaping practices like native planting and water-aware design are no longer optional for projects seeking top recognition. They are the baseline expectation.
Key takeaways
Award-winning commercial landscapes succeed when ecological function, social design, and documented maintenance planning work together from the first design decision.
| Point | Details |
|---|---|
| Quantify site performance | Document stormwater volumes, species counts, and plaza sizes to meet jury expectations. |
| Prioritize native planting | Native species reduce maintenance costs and support ecological function across all project scales. |
| Design social spaces from infrastructure | Let stormwater, grading, and circulation drive where gathering spaces are placed. |
| Plan maintenance before installation | Secure a realistic maintenance budget and document it as part of the design package. |
| Study documented case studies | Projects like Grønningen-Bispeparken and One Uptown provide measurable benchmarks for your own submissions. |
What I have learned from studying these projects
The data gap most designers ignore
After reviewing dozens of award submissions and visiting several of these sites, the single biggest differentiator is not the plant palette or the paving material. It is the documentation. Projects that win at the ASLA, APLD, and AZ Awards level consistently provide juries with hard numbers: stormwater volumes, species counts, square footage, and maintenance cost projections. Designers who submit without that data are competing with one hand behind their back.
The second insight is less obvious. The best projects do not treat sustainability as a feature. They treat it as the design logic. Grønningen-Bispeparken did not add bioswales to a finished design. The bioswales were the design. That inversion is what produces landscapes that perform for decades rather than just photograph well at opening.
For property managers, the lesson is equally direct. You inherit the maintenance plan, not just the plants. Before accepting a new landscape, ask for the documented maintenance rationale. If the design firm cannot provide one, that is a warning sign. Award-winning projects like 1385 Plaza at Maritz Campus and Strathmore Square are built around that documentation from day one.
The practical takeaway for designers: study these projects not for their aesthetics but for their logic. The aesthetic follows the logic. When you understand why Quincy Apartments replaced turfgrass with water-wise planting, you can apply that reasoning to a project in a completely different climate with a completely different budget.
— MOHAMED AWAD
AMWS Group’s approach to commercial landscape excellence
Achieving the standard set by projects like Strathmore Square and Grønningen-Bispeparken requires more than a strong design. It requires consistent, professional maintenance that protects the ecological and aesthetic investment over time.
AMWS Group delivers full-service commercial landscaping built around sustainable practices, native planting strategies, and lifecycle maintenance planning. The team works directly with property managers and designers to develop tailored maintenance plans that match the ecological complexity of the landscape. AMWS Group also provides commercial property maintenance with 24/7 emergency support, so your landscape performs at its best year-round. Contact AMWS Group to discuss a maintenance plan that protects your property’s landscape investment.
FAQ
What is an ASLA Honor Award in landscape architecture?
The ASLA Honor Award is one of the highest recognitions given by the American Society of Landscape Architects. It is awarded to projects that demonstrate exceptional design, ecological performance, and professional execution.
How do award-winning commercial landscapes handle stormwater?
Top projects like Grønningen-Bispeparken use bioswales and wet or dry biotopes to manage stormwater on site. That project’s 18 bioswales manage up to 3,000 m³ of stormwater while also serving as social gathering spaces.
What size do award-winning commercial landscapes typically reach?
Project sizes vary widely. One Uptown covers 40,000 square feet of podium amenity space, while 1385 Plaza at Maritz Campus spans 57,000 square feet of native Missouri planting.
How do property managers maintain award-winning landscapes long-term?
The most effective approach is to secure a documented maintenance plan from the design firm before installation. Expert practitioners like Christine Ten Eyck, FASLA, emphasize that sustainable maintenance funding is a core design requirement, not an afterthought.
What plant strategies do award-winning commercial landscapes use?
Native and water-wise plants are the standard. Projects like Herbaceous High Street and Quincy Apartments demonstrate that low-maintenance, ecologically functional planting can win top awards at both the APLD and national professional levels.
