Golf courses serve multiple functions in our urban and suburban landscapes. Although they were originally designed primarily for recreation, our courses now play a role in urban storm-water management, habitat and corridor preservation, air quality improvement, and various other environmental functions. There is no doubt that a golf course in the year 2012 serves the community in more ways then ever before, even to those who've never picked up a golf club.
The Great Places Awards is all about honoring creative, multidisciplinary environmental design, planning, research and writing, of which the golf industry has no shortage of. The Environmental Design Research Association's (EDRA) Call for Entries for the 14th Annual Great Places Awards for Place Design, Planning and Research deadline is Friday, January 27, 2012. Click here for submission guidelines, rules and official entry form.
From the EDRA...
The Program
The Great Places Awards are unique among programs that recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design. They are distinguished by their interdisciplinary focus, concern for human factors in the design of the built environment, and a commitment to promoting links between design research and practice.
We seek entries of exemplary work, inviting participation from a range of design and research disciplines, recognizing projects whose significance extends beyond any one profession or field. Projects should emphasize a link between research and practice, demonstrating how an understanding of human interaction with place can inspire design.
The Process
We invite participation from the full breadth of environmental design and related research activities, including architecture, landscape architecture, planning, urban design, interior design, lighting design, graphic design, environmental psychology, sociology, anthropology, geography and the physical sciences.
Each year we assemble a jury with diverse backgrounds in design, research, teaching and practice. The jury evaluates how each project, no matter what the discipline, addresses the human experience of welldesigned places. Special attention is paid to the transferability of research about human experience of place into design and planning practice.
The jury will select winners from four categories: place design, place planning, place research, and a book prize. The awards jury will convene in early 2012 at the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.
Winners will be announced and presented on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at the EDRA Awards Banquet during the 43rd Annual Conference of the Environmental Design Research Association. The winning entries will be on display during the gala and will be publicized throughout the year.
Award Categories
Place Design
Any design project completed within the last five years (but long enough to assess how well it functions for its users) can be entered. Projects can consist of individual structures, spaces or elements, or groups that work together as a unit. They can involve the design of something new or the reuse of existing resources. The scale may be large or small. Each project should account for its relation to the larger environment of which it is a part.
Place Planning
Any plan that makes proposals for the future use, management or design of a place can be entered — including master plans, specific plans or elements, management plans, vision documents, or charrette proposals. Plans must have been sponsored by an organized entity (such as a public agency, community group, private business or institution), though they need not have received official approval.
Place Research
All types of research about the design and use of places can be entered, including (but not limited to) projects that document the form or perception of places or landscapes; evaluate the use or management of recent projects or established settings; or provide background for specific designs, plans or sustainable practices.
Book Award
Any book published in the last two years advancing the critical understanding of place and design of exceptional environments may be entered. The book may be primarily scholarly, practical, literary or visual. However, it must be currently available to the public through bookstores, commercial websites, or direct purchase from a publisher. Books may not be self-published. They must have been published for the first time in the last two years. They may not be re-edited or be re-released versions of older works.
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