Sanford Golf Design has been honored by the Florida Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for “[blending] environmental and artistic principles” while creating the unique public course that is set to open next year on a former blighted landfill in the Bronx, New York.
The Florida Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (FLASLA) has awarded John Sanford and David Ferris of Sanford Golf Design, Jupiter, Fla., with its top honor, the Award of Excellence, for their work at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, Bronx, New York. At this year’s FLASLA Annual Conference in Key Largo, Fla., the project also received the 2014 Environmental Sustainability Award, which is given to only one project each year that exhibits sound sustainable practice.
The Award of Excellence cites Sanford for its reclamation and transformation of the Ferry Point Park landfill, which had been an eyesore and dumping ground since the 1940s but will now be home to a unique, Irish links-style course built atop the treeless 185-acre site that will afford golfers views of the Whitestone Bridge, the East River, and the Manhattan skyline. The public course, scheduled to open next year, is a collaborative effort between Sanford and Jack Nicklaus.
The new course will be managed by The Trump Organization, which was spared the $236 million cost of construction and is paying only $10 million to build the clubhouse.
Sanford and Ferris are being credited through the award with having seamlessly integrated innovative details into the course while addressing methane gas venting, settlement, site monitoring, neighboring storm drainage and water conservation.
Changing environmental regulations during the design and construction phases made the process even more complex. In addition, excavation had to be kept to a minimum, to reduce the impacts of requirements by the Department of Environmental Conservation for all unearthed municipal solid waste to be removed from the site.
To meet this challenge and create landforms that resemble those on an Irish links, 2.4 million cubic yards of fill and sandy topsoil was imported over a 14-month period.
“The FLASLA Design Awards program honors projects that blend environmental and artistic principles, emphasizing beauty, function, and the environment,” said FLASLA’s President, Jeff Brophy. “We recognize projects that demonstrate an inspired use of landscape architectural practices in an imaginative combination that adds to the body of the landscape architecture profession. Recipients of the Award of Excellence are truly exceptional, unique and innovative.”
“I don’t think that there has been another golf course project that has received this award from the Chapter,” said Ferris. “This Award of Excellence is our first landscape architecture design award, and I think it’s extra-special when a golf course project wins such a high honor.”
“They had over 55 projects worthy of receiving this award from around the world, ranging from small community service projects to 25,000-acre planning and analysis projects,” Ferris added. “To win this year’s Environmental Sustainability Award from the Chapter is another huge honor.”
“The comments I received offered praise not only for the design but for taking on the huge role of Project Manager on a project that included oversight of ten design and construction management sub-consultants,” added Sanford. “Also well-received by FLASLA was our team’s commitment to keep environmental stewardship at the forefront through completion.”
The FLASLA Design Awards amark the second time in a year that Sanford Golf Design was recognized by a professional society for a reclamation project that turned a landfill into a golf course. Last year, Sanford received a top honor from American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) for its work on the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy, Mass. That project involved the remaking of two municipal landfills into a 27-hole golf club.
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