Landscape Forms Celebrates Its 2022 Landscape Architecture Foundation Scholarship Winners
Landscape Forms, North America’s leading designer and manufacturer of high-design site furniture, structure, LED lighting and accessories, is proud to congratulate Victor Cizik, Adriel Jimenez, and Najla Said Lopez, the 2022 scholarship recipients from the Landscape Forms’ and Landscape Architecture Foundation’s annual scholarship program.
Since 2007, Landscape Forms has partnered with the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) to offer annual scholarships for distinguished undergraduate landscape architecture students. Landscape Forms believes in the positive impact landscape architects can have on the environment and society’s connection to it, and sees the scholarship program as an invaluable opportunity to support, celebrate and elevate the rising leaders in their industry. Through its annual scholarships, Landscape Forms seeks to open up new opportunities to increase the capacity and influence of the next generation of landscape architects in order to create a more just, inclusive, creative and sustainable future for the profession.
Najla Said Lopez, recipient of the 15th annual Landscape Forms Scholarship in Memory of Peter Schaudt, FASLA, is a fourth-year landscape architecture student at the University of Florida with varied interests and a diverse professional background brought together by a passion for helping those in need. “I enjoy how landscape architecture combines science, nature and art,” Najla describes. “I think it’s a very powerful field—after immigrating to Miami from Jordan, I’ve worked in a refugee resettlement agency and a children’s mental health crisis unit, and I’ve come to realize that in whatever line of work I’m doing, I want to be helping people. In landscape architecture, I’m inspired by the way that a connection to and love for nature is universal. And in improving sustainability, equity-based design, and advocating for equitable access to green spaces, I think we can serve underprivileged communities in really important ways.”
Victor Cizik, one of two recipients of this year’s Landscape Forms Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarship, is a third-year landscape architecture student at the University of Connecticut who seeks a future for streetscapes and urban design that is more sustainable, more pedestrian friendly, and filled with the beauty of nature. “Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved being outside in nature. I knew that in my studies and in my career, I would be involved with nature in some way, but initially I just wasn’t sure how,” Victor recalls. “But in landscape architecture, I found a way to share this passion and provide opportunities especially for low-income communities to experience the inspiration and beauty that I find outside. I have a preference for naturalistic landscape design—solutions that accentuate the existing forms and patterns found in nature—and my goal is to introduce better ways to express these ideas in the urban streetscape.”
Adriel Jimenez, the co-recipient of this year’s Landscape Forms Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarship, is a landscape architecture student at the University of Florida inspired by regenerative landscape design utilizing 3D modeling programs, data from GIS, CAD, and site-specific local research. “I’m inspired by the idea of using local context to inform landscape design—combining an area’s cultural heritage and natural features and expressing this in the landscape,” says Adriel. “For my capstone, I’m interested in the idea of replanting mangroves on the Florida coast as a way of using native, natural solutions to combat the catastrophes of climate change. As a society, we’ve disconnected from our roots and our attachment to nature, so I think rebuilding these connections is a crucial step in solving the problems we currently face.”
“I am incredibly proud of Adriel, Najla, and Victor for the level of passion that all display, and what this means for the future of landscape architecture,” says Landscape Forms’ Chief Executive Officer, Margie Simmons. “We see our scholarship program as an investment in the future of the profession, and its impact on the world we live in. Through this program and our other support for the Landscape Architecture Foundation, we want to ensure that the profession continues to thrive and that its outstanding individual contributions can be recognized.”
About the Landscape Forms Scholarship in Memory of Peter Lindsay Schaudt, FASLA
The Landscape Forms Scholarship in Memory of Peter Lindsay Schaudt celebrates the 30-year career of a leader and visionary in landscape architecture. Peter was one of the founding principals of the award-winning firm, Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture in Chicago, Illinois, and a dedicated member of the Board of Directors for Landscape Forms. Peter was widely admired for his incredible talent, dedication, generosity, and integrity. This scholarship is open to landscape architecture students in their final two years of full-time undergraduate study in a LAAB- or LAAC-accredited program in the U.S. or Canada and is awarded on the basis of academic accomplishment and creative design ability. Applicants must demonstrate passion, commitment, and competence in creating artfully-designed places for people. Recent winners of this scholarship also include Christian Moore from Ohio State University in 2018, Guadalupe Rodriguez from Cal Poly Pomona in 2019, Claire Jarvis from the University of Georgia in 2020, and Jordan Chiang from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2021.
About the Landscape Forms Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Scholarship
Celebrating its inaugural year in 2021, the Landscape Forms Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarship reflects Landscape Forms’ aim to help create a society where social justice and racial diversity are the norm. Landscape Forms believes the best workplaces embrace individuality where any person can feel a strong sense of belonging—they aspire to that reality for their own workplace, and are committed to help spread this mindset across the whole of landscape architecture professions. This scholarship was established as a small but meaningful step toward achieving that vision of a just and diverse community in their industry, helping Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students advance in their education and career in landscape architecture. The Landscape Forms Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarship is open to undergraduate landscape architecture students who identify as BIPOC and are currently enrolled in a LAAB- or LAAC-accredited program in the US or Canada. Candidates must demonstrate financial need, academic aptitude, and commitment to the discipline of landscape architecture. The inaugural winner of this scholarship was Diamond Owens from the University of Georgia in 2021.
About the Landscape Architecture Foundation
For more than 50 years, LAF has been identifying priorities and strengthening the discipline to meet weighty environmental, social, and economic challenges. They believe in the power of design to create a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable world. With $180,000 available annually, LAF is a leading source of scholarships for landscape architecture students. These awards recognize leadership, reward superior student performance, support access and diversity, and assist students with unmet financial need.
About Landscape Forms
Landscape Forms is the industry leader in integrated collections of high-design site furniture, structures, accessories, and advanced LED lighting. Since its founding in 1969 Landscape Forms has earned a reputation for excellent design, high quality products and exceptional service. The company is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and includes Kornegay Design, located in Phoenix, Arizona, and Loll Designs, in Duluth, Minnesota, in its family of brands. It has sales representatives throughout North America, South America, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Asia. Landscape Forms collaborates with renowned industrial designers and consultancies, landscape architects, and architects to design and develop integrated collections of products that address emerging needs and help create a sense of place. Additionally, the company has formed global marketing partnerships with select companies that share its commitment to design. Landscape Forms has an installed base of products around the world. Clients include municipalities, transit centers, corporate, college and health care campuses; and familiar brand leaders such as Harvard University, Linked In, New York Central Park Conservancy, Bryant Park, Google, Coca Cola, Oculus, U.S. Tennis Association (USTA), Nike, National Museum of African American History (Washington, D.C.), Barclays Center, Adidas, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Microsoft, and Uber. We’ve been named one of the Best Workplaces in Manufacturing & Production for 2020 and 2021 by Fortune magazine, Michigan Manufacturer of the Year by the Michigan Manufacturers Association, and by 269 Magazine as one of Southwest Michigan’s Wonderful Workplaces.
