Daniel (Zhicheng) Xu, an undergraduate at Purdue University, recently won the ASLA 2013 Student Awards - Award of Excellence in the Analysis and Planning Category for his project "Natural Water as Cultural Water / A 30 Year Plan for Wabash River Corridor in Lafayette."

The project is a stormwater management plan to achieve ecological and cultural resilience for the poor landscape conditions of the Wabash River in Lafayette, Indiana. — bustler.net

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture's design proposal was selected for the 2017 Astana World Expo exhibition site. Construction of the two-phase development is expected to begin in March-April 2014. — bustler.net

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recently announced the list of the 2013 ASLA professional and student winners. The ASLA Awards honor the best public places, residential designs, campuses, parks and urban planning projects from the U.S. and around the globe. — bustler.net

The City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Downtown Council announced on Sept. 19 that New York firm James Corner Field Operations and its team have been selected to carry out the $40 million redesign of Nicollet Mall, a major cultural and commercial center in Downtown Minneapolis. The winning proposal, called the "Nicollet Walk", is a 12-block stretch that divides the Nicollet Mall into three sections: Live, Work, and Play. — bustler.net

Last week Friday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg broke ground on The Hills, a new public park land on Governors Island designed by Rotterdam-based landscape architects West 8.

Made of recycled construction and fill materials, The Hills will rise 34 to 90 feet above sea level, and the summit of the tallest Hill will provide visitors with a 360-degree panorama of the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor and the Lower Manhattan skyline. — bustler.net

The Minneapolis Parks Foundation has announced a shortlist of three award-winning design teams for the schematic design project Water Works: A Next Generation Park on Minneapolis’ Central Riverfront. The teams are Gustafson Guthrie Nicol with VJAA and Interboro (Seattle/Minneapolis/New York); SCAPE with Rogers Marvel (New York); and Team West 8 (Rotterdam/New York). — bustler.net

A five-member jury has selected the winner of the Town Branch Commons Design Competition in Lexington, Kentucky. The brief calls for the creation of a long, serpentine park following the path of a historic stream in downtown Lexington.

From a shortlist of five finalists, the entry "Reviving Town Branch" by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture team was chosen as the winning proposal. — bustler.net

"You need to get concrete out of your head and replace it with greenery," Bödeker had thundered at the head of planning at the urban planning authority. The gruff German made such an impression that to this day, Saudi authorities continue to hire and recommend him. Image by Susanne Kölbl / DER SPIEGEL — Der Spiegel

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) announced today a shortlist of seven design teams that have been invited to submit technical proposals for the development of Hong Kong's first art-themed park, 14 hectares of landscaped public space for arts and culture at the West Kowloon Cultural District, by the waterfront in Kowloon. — bustler.net

North Carolina architects Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee (PBC+L) recently received a 2012 Certificate of Recognition from the NC chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for their project, "Brick Garden," designed for the Triangle Brick Headquarters in Durham, NC. — bustler.net

Smith is one of 20 landscape architects who have helped create a new online guide to the city’s important outdoor spaces, some world famous, others, such as the Civil War memorial at U and Vermont Avenue NW, not as well known. The Web site, The Landscape Architect’s Guide to Washington, D.C., was launched Sept. 13 by the American Society of Landscape Architects, and there is a version for mobile devices. — washingtonpost.com

Earlier this week, we featured the urban square design GENK C-m!ne by Dutch landscape and urban design firm HOSPER. Here's another project by them we really enjoyed: an almost 8,000 square foot ornamental pond on top of an underground parking garage which rivals any James Bond supervillan lair. The fascinating garage entrance, which has won multiple design awards, is part of the larger urban and landscape master plan HOSPER drew up for the land of the historic Hageveld Estate, near Amsterdam. — bustler.net

This week, after a $56-million renovation, that 12-acre rectangle from the top of Bunker Hill to the base of City Hall will be christened as L.A.'s Grand Park, providing downtown with its first sizable amount of open space. — latimes.com

Another bigger picture repercussion of the Act is the cognitive and cartographic dissonance that occurs in Los Angeles where the Jeffersonian city grid abuts a pre-existing Spanish or French grid. — KCET/Departures