Nexton is the recipient of the 2020 Gold Nugget Award for Best Community Land Plan. Presented by Pacific Coast Builders Conference, the international event recognizes the best-of-the-best in the housing industry. The competition is open to builders, developers, architects, interior merchandisers/designers, and land planners with communities and projects across the United States and internationally.
Nexton Brighton Park Receives Award of Excellence from South Carolina ASLA
The Award of Excellence, the highest honor of the South Carolina Chapter awards program, was presented on October 5, 2018 in Charleston, SC at the Clemson Center for Design. KWLS and South Carolina partner and Landscape Architect of Record Seamon Whiteside designed the project as a central feature of the Nexton New Town near Summerville, SC.
Understanding that the Park was to be a central hub for public activity in the Nexton New Town community, the plan consolidated three smaller blocks into one central park. Public facilities and spaces are distributed in a way that reveals the nature of the place and provides opportunities for site-specific planting. The Low Country tends to be almost flat, yet subtle changes in topography cause changes in the environment and plant communities. Following this model, the park site‐‐originally planted as a part of a pine plantation—was reconfigured to reveal and celebrate the change in elevation across its length and planted in zones appropriate to topographic condition.
2018 SC ASLA Awards link: http://scasla.org/news/2018-scasla-awards/
View of Brighton Park across the pond to the Great Lawn and Ramble. Postal Pavilion and Greeting House beyond.
KWLS Awarded VA ASLA Presidential Award of Excellence for Nexton Brighton Park
Kennon Williams accepted the award at the VA ASLA’s Annual Meeting at Natural Bridge State Park on August 24, 2018.
The design of Brighton Park is based on a topographic and ecologic understanding of its location in Nexton, a new pedestrian-oriented community in the South Carolina Low Country near Summerville. The park is the centerpiece of the landscape master plan for the Neighborhood District, that weaves a closely connected network of parks, pedestrian ways, and ecologic corridors into the development.
The plan converts a pine plantation monoculture into a community gathering place that restores, reveals, and celebrates the environmental qualities of the Carolina Low Country. Seamon Whiteside served as Landscape Architect of Record.
More about the 2018 VA ASLA Awards here: http://www.vaasla.org/awards/
Mark Rylander Presents Sustainability Lecture at VCU
On April 5th Mark Rylander presented a guest lecture entitled Sustainable Design, Technology, and the Built Environment at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Sustainable Societies- James River Basin course. The talk and discussion introduced students to the opportunities and challenges faced by design professionals who seek design decisions that are better for the environment. Concepts introduced included life-cycle thinking, cost-benefit analysis, green building rating systems, sustainable urban design, and biomimicry.
Bosco Verticale, Porta Nuova Isola, Milan Italy
Kennon Williams Guest Panelist at Hometown Habitat Event
Kennon described strategies for sustainable and native planting design at a special event at Piedmont Virginia Community College on Sunday February 11th, 2018. The event featured a screening of the Catherine Zimmerman environmental film Hometown Habitat. The Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries in partnership with PVCC Community Garden sponsored the event.
KWLS members on class reviews at UVA Architecture School
Kennon Williams and Richard Price are joining the UVA faculty for the university planning school's semester reviews.
KWLS member, Mark Rylander, is a Guest panelist at the Library of Congress
Mark Rylander was recently asked to be a guest panelist at a symposium hosted at the Library of Congress. Information can be found by following the link through the image below.
Kennon, Luke, Janna, and Sydna standing by the new sign.
McIntire Botanical Garden Planting
We had a wonderful Wednesday morning volunteering at the McIntire Botanical Garden as they planted their first bed today. The team grabbed some shovels and a mattock and helped plant a black gum tree and native shrubs around the new sign at the corner of John W. Warner Parkway and Melbourne Road.
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