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Portland landscape architecture firm PLACE recently was named the Architecture MasterPrize landscape and urban design Firm of the Year for 2019.

The honor, in the medium (10-49 employees) category, was for PLACE’s total body of work. The firm was founded in 2010.

An international jury of architects, designers, curators and academics selected honorees from among more than 1,000 entries representing 65 countries. Recognition from a broad group of peers meant a lot, PLACE principal Mauricio Villarreal said.

鈥淔or us it’s kind of a way of understanding that the values we practice here in Portland, Oregon, translate worldwide,鈥� he said. 鈥淗aving people that understand the value of involving the community in the design process, which is something Portland is notorious for, and the community worldwide is not as involved with, that translates those opportunities into great landscape pieces. It’s just really exciting to see that is visible to people all over the world.鈥�

In addition to being named Firm of the Year, PLACE earned a Public Award for its work on the聽Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building聽in downtown Portland; an Outdoor Award for its work on the Swarovski Kristallwelten World Museum in Wattens, Austria; and an Educational Award for its work on the University of Oregon’s Hatfield-Dowlin Complex in Eugene.

Those three projects effectively represent the firm’s overall portfolio, Villarreal said.

鈥淥ur work in Austria is a very good example of collaboration with artists and architects, and the landscape really brings it all together,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he award for University of Oregon Hatfield-Dowlin Center 鈥� that was an award for educational design and it’s very much the work that happens when you work with universities. And Edith Green, it’s an award about sustainability and it’s the work that you do with civic work. It really starts touching the different elements of working with the public and working on campuses and working with private institutions.鈥�

PLACE received honorable mention for its work on the Hassalo on Eighth project in Lloyd.

鈥淭hat’s a really interesting project in the sense of landscape architecture and private investment and the public sector can come together,鈥� Villarreal said. 鈥淚t was really three parking lots with a tower, and now it’s a building that has created a community.鈥�

Hassalo on Eighth also received a 2019 ASLA Honor Award for residential design, Villarreal added.

2019 Architecture MasterPrize winners were honored Oct. 14 at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.