NZILA 50th - The Awards Programme
Fifteen years after Tuia Pito Ora New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects was launched, it began its awards programme with two categories - named after two pioneers of the profession who we have already profiled - George Malcolm and Charlie Challenger.
As we continue the countdown to the Institute’s 50th anniversary celebrations later this year it is important to acknowledge the evolution of the awards programme from its relatively small beginnings - to the celebration of the profession we see today.
Te Papa Ōtākaro Avon River Park (ARP) and City Promenade in Otautahi won the NZILA George Malcolm Award at the 2019 Resene New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture awards.
By 1987 it was felt the profession had matured enough to begin celebrating with the awards but with the added goal of profiling the profession which was not well understood at the time.
Sarah Collins (now at Boffa Miskell in Auckland) was on the NZILA Executive Committee from 1985-1989 and played an important role in getting the awards off the ground.
“We wanted to get our projects into the media, out to the public, so that people would better understand what we do.”
She says some of the early awards did exactly that, highlighting the breadth and scale and public nature of the work the profession was doing.
The Landscape issue number 32/33 won the first ever Charlie Challenger award at the inaugural NZILA awards in 1987.
Monier was the original awards sponsor but in 2008 Resene came on as naming rights sponsor - a partnership which continues today and which will be celebrated once again on October 13 at the 2022 Resene New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards gala dinner at the Cordis Hotel.
Back in 1987 five entries were received for the George Malcom Award and George himself was part of the judging panel which also included convener Clive Anstey, Robert Kennedy (a retired Professor of Town Planning at Auckland University) and Mike Cole, a landscape architect and former teacher at Lincoln College.
The inaugural winner was the Ministry of Works and Environmental Design Section for its Christchurch Girls’ High School project.
The Charlie Challenger Award was set up to “recognise outstanding contributions (in written form) to the professional practice of landscape architecture in New Zealand.”
Charlie Challenger was also part of the judging panel for the inaugural award in his name. That panel was convened by Simon Swaffield and included Dr John Hayward, Head of the Centre for Resource Management at Lincoln College.
“Our choice of The Landscape 32/33 reflects our feeling that it encapsulates the breadth and quality of the full range of submissions,” wrote the judges at the time.
“As such it sets a standard for future awards and also acknowledges the most sustained single publication efforts since the profession was established in New Zealand.”
The Ministry of Works and Development Environmental Design Section Christchurch Girls High School·project won the inaugural NZILA George Malcolm Award in 1987.
The issue focused on conservation and development and as the editorial committee of Frank Boffa, Boyden Evans and Shona McCahon noted, it was an ambitious edition, in colour, and was made possible with a 1986 Environmental Grant from the Environmental Council.
In the 35 years the awards programme has been running it has expanded to include 14 categories. Winners of the two supreme awards, The George Malcolm and the Charlie Challenger awards are selected from the finalists in those categories.