The Rain Gardens at 900 Block is award-worthy because:

• The design approach resulted in an immersive green infrastructure experience, a true rain 鈥済arden.鈥�
• The entrant secured grant funds to invest in the property while advocating for improving urban ecologies and stormwater systems on a larger scale.
• The entrant took a triple-bottom-line approach for stormwater retrofits to benefit the community beyond the property lines.
• The entrant greened the site with native plants and minimized maintenance.

The utilization of incentive grant dollars to improve stormwater functionality, site value and social spaces showcase how to creatively implement high-quality sustainability and resiliency-focused landscapes even at small scales.

This project re-imagines a car-centric streetscape of two city blocks and a plaza as a new public realm aligned with the city鈥檚 vibrant and diverse community. Proactive community engagement drove the success of this work: over 70 pop-up and prototyping events, one-on-one stakeholder meetings, artist sessions, and other engagement events captured a true understanding of the community's needs and desires for this project.

The project pioneers a curbless street design, integrates dramatic public art installations from local and internationally known artists, and utilizes custom-designed accessible site furniture. Cutting-edge sustainability strategies promote greenery and reduce stormwater runoff and ice-melting salt usage.

Franklin Park has long been a beloved center of recreation, gathering, and discovery for Boston鈥檚 most diverse communities. Emerging from the Imagine Boston 2030 Plan, the Action Plan is founded on equal respect for the park's historic fabric, ecological systems, and the strong community of contemporary users who have stewarded it through years of disinvestment. Focused on issues of equity, ecological resilience, climate change, and cultural significance, its aspirations are forward-looking and visionary, but based in practical and action-oriented recommendations. It advocates for thoughtfully guided, community-driven improvements implemented through equitable investment to enable this treasured park to do what it does now, only better.

Vista Hermosa was the first public park built in downtown Los Angeles in over 100 years. Previously an oil field located in a park-poor urban area, the park provides residents of a dense, primarily working-class Latinx neighborhood with "a window to the Mountains," opportunities for recreation, access to nature, and quiet reprieve. Marrying environmental justice to social justice, the park provides a safer environment in what was once a dangerous and contaminated vacant lot. As re-created habitat in the heart of the city, Vista Hermosa features many resilient, nature-based solutions that were ahead of its time. The park has become a symbol of Los Angeles, bringing a natural experience to those who are unable to visit the nearby mountains.