Daniels Faculty student Jaysen Ariola recevied an Award of Excellence for his Master of Landscape Architecture thesis, and Meikang Li, Qiwei Song, and Chaoyi Cui won a Merit Award for their studio project from the 2019 World Landscape Architecture (WLA) Awards.

The WLA Awards is an international competition that recognizes and promotes landscape architects for their outstanding work. The Awards seek to highlight innovative work, either conceptual or built.

Images above and top by Jaysen Ariola

Ariola’s thesis project, Waters in Peril Collective Measures for a Dying Lake Winnipeg, included a framework for a new landscape policy and ecological planning to address the issue of nutrient runoff into the Red River, which drains into Lake Winnipeg. The framework addresses and conveys what it means to protect and restore ecosystems to various groups and people.

Jaysen also received the John E. (Jack) Irving Prize and was among recipients of the Academic Honors Certificate upon graduating last spring. 

Image above by Meikang Li, Qiwei Song, and Chaoyi Cui

Li, Song, and Cui’s project, The Drainage Filter for the Everglades, proposed re-channeling water runoff through public-owned properties, where the water will be stored and treated before arriving at its destination, the Everglades. The project proposes a phased, cost-efficient alternative and improvement to existing expensive water treatment infrastructures in the Everglades.


This project was part of the Daniels Option Studio that received ARCHITECT magazine’s Studio Prize. The Studio "Coding Flux: In Pursuit of Resilient Urbanism in South Florida" (LAN 3016) was taught by Assistant Professor Fadi Masoud (coordinator), and Elise Shelley.


Visit the WLA website for more info and to read about other winners.