The Wisconsin Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects bestowed honors on Ayres and one of its landscape designers during its recent awards presentation.

Ayres was honored with a Visibility Award for the transformative power of the master plan it developed to assess 52 Milwaukee playfields – most of which serve as neighborhood-scale parks.

“The Outdoor Recreation Facilities Master plan developed by Ayres Associates served as the catalyst to grow landscape architecture in Milwaukee and visibility for the profession as demonstrated by results over the past 8 years,” says Pamela Zimmerman, recreation design and development specialist with Milwaukee Recreation, writing in her letter nominating Ayres and Continuum Architects & Planners for the award.

Zimmerman outlined the following results from the master plan:

• Milwaukee Recreation’s equitable investment of over $40 million over the past five years to improve its outdoor recreation spaces.
• Enlisting the support of six landscape architecture firms and 30 landscape architects to work on these projects.
• The creation of four full-time landscape architect positions over the past six years within Milwaukee Recreation to support the work identified in the master plan.

Paige Bernhardt, landscape designer in the Eau Claire office, received the Chapter Service Award in recognition of “exemplary service on chapter boards and committees” – primarily for her work building a new, user-friendly website for the chapter.

Bernhardt’s other volunteer work with the chapter includes:

• Serving on the Tellers Committee to tabulate and approve election results.
• Serving on the Planning Committee to organize events.
• Serving on the student awards jury that recognizes students in the landscape architecture program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Volunteering to chair the Membership Committee beginning this fall.
• Joining the Board of Directors this fall.