PlanET Greenways Guide Wins Award of Excellence

The Tennessee Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (TNASLA) bestowed an Award of Excellence on a team of local professionals and students for their recent work on greenway design.

Their efforts were part of a Plan East Tennessee and City of Knoxville initiative to create new ways to provide and promote greenways and pedestrian linkages in the region. The group accepted the award on September 19 at the annual TNASLA conference in Chattanooga.

Greenway Guidelines for the East Tennessee Region: Recommendations for Water, Rail, and Roadside Trails in Regional Landscapeswas produced by a team of design professionals: Tracy Walker Moir-McClean, Principle Investigator, Valerie Friedmann, Co-Principle Investigator, and Sean Martin, Co-Principle Investigator. Student team members were tapped from The University of Tennessee's College of Architecture and Design and included Clay Lezon, Matt Barnett, Taylor Dotson, and Clint Wayman.

The publication provides a regionally appropriate introduction to greenway corridor design; illustrates corridor conditions typical to East Tennessee; and, offers before-and-after visions of greenways in urban, suburban, and rural East Tennessee landscapes. The guide also offers easy-to-use visual indexes to help in the selection and design of trails and corridor amenities.

Rather than a detailed construction or technical reference manual, Greenway Guidelines is meant to foster a general understanding of both the benefits and challenges associated with building greenways in East Tennessee. It is a valuable resource for a broad audience, from readers who are beginning to learn about greenways to experienced trail advocates, elected officials, planners, engineers, and urban designers.

Last year, two other PlanET projects were TNASLA award winners.Low Impact Development: Opportunities for the PlanET Regionwon an Honor Award in the "Special Projects/Communications" category andHappy Holler Street Parkreceived an Award of Excellence in the "Student Design/General Design" category.

For more information on the award-winning projects, visit the PlanET website.