Berkeley Team Wins the Association of Professional Landscape Designers' Award and a Gold Medal

The 2007 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show provided UC Berkeley’s Landscape Architecture department with a unique opportunity to design and build a full-scale installation that would be judged against local professionals’ gardens. A group of seven students, graduate and undergraduate members of the student ASLA, conceptualized, designed, mocked-up and constructed their design, which won multiple awards: a Gold Medal and the Association of Professional Landscape Designers’ Award. The installation also received write-ups in newspapers across California including the Los Angeles Times.

The installation, entitled Wine Re-defined, exhibited the potential for creative reuse of materials from the wine industry. Hand-crafted furniture built from oak wine barrels, stepping stones made of recycled corks, lanterns derived from wine bottles, and tumbled glass all spoke to the reuse of winemaking materials. A mated plant palette stood out among the rich colors of wine, further emphasizing new possibilities rather than traditional themes. Although a volunteer effort, students received faculty advice as well as department funding for recent graduate show entries. LAEP students constructed installations in 2005 and 2002, receiving awards each year.

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show 2007 participants were (left to right) Caleb Clark, John Martin, Leslie McKenna, Mandy Leung, Sutter Wehmeier, Ingrid Stromberg and Michael Herrin.