WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is excited to announce its 34 professional award recipients. Selected from 459 entries, the awards honor top public, commercial, residential, institutional, planning, communications and research projects in the U.S. and around the world.

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The winners will receive their awards at the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Chicago on Monday, November 9 at McCormick Place – Lakeside Center, Arie Crown Theater.

The October issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine (LAM) features the winning projects and is available online for free viewing here: http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issue=416354219&o=ext.

The following is a complete list of 2015 professional award winners:

General Design Category

Award of Excellence
At the Hudson’s Edge: Beacon’s Long Dock as a Resilient Riverfront Park, Beacon, N.Y.
by Reed Hilderbrand LLC for the Scenic Hudson Land Trust

Honor Awards
Perez Art Museum Miami: Resiliency by Design, Miami
by ArquitectonicaGEO for the Perez Art Museum Miami

Mill River Park and Greenway, Stamford, Conn.
by OLIN for the Mill River Collaborative

Art and Infrastructure: Community, Culture, and a Collection in the Berkshires, Williamstown, Mass.
by Reed Hilderbrand LLC for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute         

Weishan Wetland Park, Weishan, Shandong Province, China
by AECOM, Shanghai for the Wei Shan Investment Co. Ltd.

Phil Hardberger Park, San Antonio, Texas
by Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects for the San Antonio Department of Parks and Recreation

IBM Honolulu Plaza, Honolulu
by Surfacedesign Inc. for Victoria Ward Ltd., Subsidiary of Howard Hughes Corporation

The Lawn on D, Boston
by Sasaki Associates Inc. for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA)

Public Media Commons, St. Louis
by DLANDstudio Architecture + Landscape Architecture PLLC for the St. Louis Regional Public Media Inc. let by KETC Nine Network, Public Television

Analysis & Planning Category

Award of Excellence
Penn’s Landing Redevelopment and Feasibility Study, Philadelphia
by Hargreaves Associates for the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation

Honor Awards
Cornwall Park 100 Year Master Plan – Projecting a Resilient Future, Auckland, New Zealand
by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, Charlottesville, Va., and New York, N.Y., for Cornwall Park Trust Board

A Landscape Legacy – Master Planning a Cultural Landscape for Future Generations at Overlook Farm, Dalton, Pa.
by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, Charlottesville, Va., and New York, N.Y., for Mort and Sue Fuller

Fayetteville 2030: Food City Scenario, Fayetteville, Ark.
by University of Arkansas Community Design Center for the City of Fayetteville

Dallas Connected Cities, Dallas
by Mia Lehrer + Associates (MLA) for the City of Dallas

James Island, Columbia, Canada
by Design Workshop, Aspen

Communications Category

Award of Excellence
Landscape Performance Series: Demonstrating the Environmental, Social, and Economic Value of Sustainable Landscapes
by the Landscape Architecture Foundation

Honor Awards
Composite Landscapes: Photomontage and Landscape Architecture
by Charles Waldheim, Affiliate ASLA, published by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Landscape Architecture Frontiers, Beijing
by Peking University, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, published by Higher Education Press

Ecological Restoration Journal: A New Platform for Dialogue Between Landscape Architects and Ecologists
by Rutgers University, published by the University of Wisconsin Press

Modern Landscapes: Transition & Transformation Book Series
by the Cultural Landscape Foundation, published by Princeton Architectural Press

Research Category

Honor Awards
Collective Visions: Exploring the Design Potential of Landscape History
by Kathleen John-Alder, ASLA / Rutgers University

Below the Surface: Evaluating Urban Soil Performance Over Time
by Reed Hilderbrand LLC / Halvorson Design Partnership

Restoration in Urban Parks: Long-term Tests of Forest Management to Advance Landscape Structure and Function
by Rutgers University

Spontaneous Urban Plants
by Future Green Studio

Case Study Investigation (CSI): Measuring Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Exemplary Landscapes
by the Landscape Architecture Foundation

Residential Design Category

Award of Excellence
Cedar Creek, Trinidad, Texas
by Hocker Design Group

Honor Awards
300 Ivy, San Francisco
by Fletcher Studio for Pocket Development

MassArt Residence Hall, Boston
by Ground Inc. for the Massachusetts College of Art and Design / Massachusetts State College Building Authority

Sweetwater Spectrum Residential Community for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Sonoma, Calif.
by Roche + Roche Landscape Architecture for Sweetwater Spectrum

Metamorphous – A Corten Seawall Sculpture & Foreshore Enhancement, Vancouver, BC, Canada
by Paul Sangha Landscape Architecture

Mill Creek Ranch, Vanderpool, Texas
by Ten Eyck Landscape Architects

Flying Point Residence, Southhampton, N.Y.
by Edmund Hollander Landscape Architects

Brooklyn Oasis, Brooklyn, N.Y.
by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.

The Landmark Award
Art Institute of Chicago South Garden by Dan Kiley, Chicago
by the Cultural Landscape Foundation for Art Institute of Chicago

The professional awards jury included:

• Keith LeBlanc, FASLA, Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture Inc., Boston, Jury Chair
• Thomas Balsley, FASLA, Thomas Balsley Associates, New York City
• René Bihan, ASLA, SWA Group, San Francisco
• Alan Brake, The Architect’s Newspaper LLC, New York City
• Kathleen Dickhut, ASLA, Department of Housing and Economic Development, Chicago
• Signe Nielsen, FASLA, Mathews Nielsen, New York City
• Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, FASLA, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Mark Robbins, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy
• Richard Weller, ASLA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Complete awards criteria, project information and images can be viewed at: http://www.asla.org/2015awards/index.html

High-resolution images are available for journalists. Please contact Karen Grajales at [email protected].

About the American Society of Landscape Architects
Founded in 1899, ASLA is the national professional association for landscape architects, representing more than 15,000 members in 49 professional chapters and 72 student chapters. Members of the Society use “ASLA” after their names to denote membership and their commitment to the highest ethical standards of the profession. Landscape architects lead the stewardship, planning and design of our built and natural environments; the Society’s mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education and fellowship.

BETHESDA, Maryland, Sept. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Current standards for ultrasound evaluation of fetal growth may lead to misclassification of up to 15 percent of fetuses of minority mothers as being too small, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other institutions.

Fetal growth restriction is a medical term used to describe fetuses that do not keep up with growth milestones appropriate to their stage of development. Growth restriction is a sign of an underlying health problem, often resulting from the fetus not receiving enough nutrients or oxygen in the uterus.

According to the latest study, however, many fetuses of minority mothers may be developing normally, but because of hereditary and environmental factors, they are smaller than their white counterparts. The findings could mean that many otherwise healthy pregnant women are subjected to tests and procedures that they don’t need.

“Doctors like to be proactive—if they suspect there’s a problem with a fetus’ growth, then they’re likely going to order tests and investigate,” said the study’s first author, Germaine Buck Louis, Ph.D, Director of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). “But inaccurate standards may be leading women to receive unnecessary tests—not to mention the stress of thinking something may be wrong—when their pregnancies actually are on track.”

The study, based on serial scans of more than 1,700 pregnancies, was published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Ultrasonic examination during pregnancy—in which sound waves are used to create an image of the developing fetus—is a routine test to make sure a pregnancy is proceeding normally. The test can detect multiple pregnancies, problems with the placenta or fetal heart, or whether the fetus is growing too slowly. The latter condition, often referred to as fetal, or intrauterine, growth restriction, could signal such pregnancy problems as maternal high blood pressure, failure of the placenta to deliver enough blood, or fetal heart disease.  According to Dr. Buck Louis, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish a growth-restricted fetus from a fetus growing normally.

“It’s the same as with children—some fetuses are just naturally small for their age,” she said.

After they’re born, growth-restricted infants are referred to as small for gestational age if their weights are below a predetermined cut-off, say the 5^th or 10^th percentile. Growth restricted infants are at increased risk for serious health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease and death.

Currently, many practitioners rely on older reference charts for estimating whether a fetus is growing normally. During a sonogram, measurements are taken of the fetus’ head circumference, abdominal circumference and length of the femur (thigh bone). These measurements are used in a formula to estimate the weight of the fetus, which is then compared to a series of estimated weights on a chart of fetal weight stratified by gestational age. The growth chart weights were derived from a study by Frank Hadlock and his colleagues, who compiled ultrasound measurements of 139 pregnancies of predominantly middle-class white women during the 1980s.

Today, the current study authors wrote, new mothers tend to be older, heavier, and more likely to be non-white than when the Hadlock entries were compiled. The researchers sought to compile standards that more accurately reflect the best fetal growth during healthy pregnancies among the most common racial and ethnic groups in the United States. They began by enrolling 2,334 women, aged 18 to 40 years, at 12 hospitals in the United States. The women identified themselves as non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic and Asian. The researchers sought only healthy pregnancies so that they could image fetuses whose growth was unaffected by pregnancy-related illness and conditions. Women with such pregnancy-related complications eventually were not included in the standards. Of the 1,737 women with low-risk pregnancies remaining, 26 percent were white, 26 percent black, 28 percent Hispanic, and 20 percent Asian. 

The researchers assigned each woman at random to one of four groups. The women in each group underwent a total of five sonograms, at intervals from the 16^th through the 41^st week of pregnancy. The researchers averaged the measurements from all the images to compile a sequence of estimated fetal weights—a growth chart that could be used to gauge whether a fetus was growing at an acceptable or unacceptable rate.

The researchers found significant differences among fetuses in the different groups after the 20^th week of pregnancy. For example, by the 39^th week, fetuses of white mothers were the largest at 4402 grams, followed by fetuses of Hispanic mothers (4226 grams). Fetuses of black mothers were the smallest, at 4053 grams.

The researchers then scored the estimated weights of the fetuses of minority mothers based on the weights they had compiled for fetuses of white mothers. They found that, depending on the group and the week of pregnancy, 5 to 15 percent of the fetuses of minority mothers scored below the 5^th percentile when compared to fetuses of white mothers. For example, at 35 weeks of pregnancy, 14 percent of fetuses of black mothers and 15 percent of fetuses of Asian mothers would have been classified as below the 5^th percentile, based upon the white standard.

The authors added that future studies to determine fetal growth standards should attempt to take racial and ethnic differences into account. Further research is needed to determine if there are similar variations within racial and ethnic groups depending on their country or region of origin.

In addition to investigators from the National Institutes of Health, researchers from the following institutions also participated in the study: The Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, Delaware; University of California, Irvine; Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Fountain Valley, California; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois; Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston; Columbia University Medical Center. New York City; New York Hospital Queens; Miller Children’s Hospital/Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach, California; St. Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey; University of Alabama at Birmingham; Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Providence, and Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

Buck Louis, GM, et al. Racial/Ethnic Standards for Fetal Growth, the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2015.

About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s website at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.  

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

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