Photo courtesy Jeff Cutler

The University of British Columbia's (UBC's) Sustainability Street project (space2place design inc) received a National Merit Award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA). The project has transformed the formerly nondescript thoroughfare of Stores Road into a visually appealing, pedestrian-oriented promenade that complements the environmental processes and promotes awareness of the interrelationships between people, the built environment, and the natural world.

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) has named the recipients of its 2008 Awards of Excellence program. This year, the jury selected 26 outstanding projects to the society's honour roll, with 11 projects taking national prizes, and another 15 earning regional recognition.

A National Honour Award went to the team of Serge Poitras (Montreal), Jim Vafiades (London, Ont.), Jim Melvin (Toronto), and Claude Potvin (Ottawa) for Cuba 2007-Landscape Synergy: An Exchange of Culture, Ideas & Opportunities (the 2007 CSLA conference).

Another pair of awards recognized two Canadian projects, one at home and the other abroad. Alvin D. Regehr, Landscape Architect and Zeidler Partnership Architects/Tarek El-Khatib (Toronto) received a National Honour Award for the Canadian Diplomatic Complex in Seoul, South Korea, while PWL Partnership Landscape Architects (Vancouver) and Don Wuori Design (Surrey, B.C.) were named for the East Fraserlands-Phase I Public Realm Plan in Vancouver.

Under the 'design' category, Vancouver firms swept the National Merit Awards. The winners were:

• Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg for Bellevue City Hall in Washington;

• space2place design inc for the University of British Columbia's (UBC's) Sustainability Street; and

• Lees & Associates for Vancouver's Air India Memorial.

A fourth National Merit Award went to Robert Gibbs, FSCLA, and EIDOS Consultants Inc. (Edmonton) for their planning and analysis work on the Capital Region River Valley Park.

For a full list of winners, visit www.csla.ca.