Landscape Architecture and Urbanism Studio Receives National Honor Award
Trees were at the center of a trip to Japan for a group of Illinois Tech’s College of Architecture students—a trip that also led to a national award for the students’ investigation into what makes a city’s urban landscape stand out, regardless of where the city is.
TREES ALIVE!: Techniques, Details, Traditions is a collaborative book of research written in conjunction with landscape architecture students from the University of Tokyo. The book, one of 394 student-led entries that were submitted to the National American Society of Landscape Architects, received the Honor Award for Student Collaboration.
Professor Ron Henderson took the studio on a 10-day trip to Japan to explore the differences in landscaping and trees in the largest urban area in the world. The idea for a travel studio began because of Henderson’s 20-year friendship with University of Tokyo Professor of Landscape Architecture Toru Mitani, and a private donor who was interested in a student exchange experience that featured trees as a centerpiece. The Meiji Shrine, a complex home to approximately 100,000 trees in the middle of Tokyo, was a highlight of the trip.
College of Architecture students visited in fall 2024, and University of Tokyo students explored Chicago-area landmarks, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, in spring 2025.
Viona Chiang (B.ARCH. ’25, M.LA+U 1st Year) joined the studio in the last year of her B.ARCH. program, mostly for the excitement of traveling to Japan for new experiences. After the visit, she’s now enrolled in the landscape architecture master’s program.
“The trip opened my eyes to landscape,” Chiang says. “Everything there is so organized and well planned, even for landscaped small gardens and green space brought in everyday life. It’s so much different than Chicago, where green space is mostly on the biggest scale like Grant [Park] or Douglass Park.”
The trips and experiences led to the publishing of TREES ALIVE!, which comprises two technical booklets—one for Japan research sites and one for the United States sites—that document 30 gardens and landscapes. For each research site, students drew original isometric construction details that document techniques for urban tree planting and other strategies for tree health and vitality.
“At first, we just thought it was a research project on Japanese trees,” Chiang says. “But when we were done and it was put into a book, it was a big deal. Winning the award reminded me that this is a cultural exchange experience. It’s important to people who cannot go to Japan and learn there firsthand.”
The award was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects in New Orleans on October 11.
Image: TREES ALIVE! book cover and interior pages accompanied by student participants in the M.LA+U program.
