AWARDS SACRED LANDSCAPE
Tri-Faith Commons Omaha , Nebraska
TEN x TEN , Design Lead , Landscape Architecture Minneapolis , Minnesota
HGA , Project Lead , Bridge Development Minneapolis , Minnesota
The 35-acre Tri-Faith Commons is home to the Tri-Faith Initiative ( a faith-based campus containing Jewish , Christian , and Islamic places of worship ). The campus design team was invited to co-create a visionary master plan for the TFI . The site is divided into a series of Faith Precincts , each occupied by a house of worship and a set of common spaces shared by the whole community . The secondary walks , faith-based gardens , gathering spaces , and plantings are grounded in stewardship of resources and ecological restoration . The Commons ’ signature feature is Abraham ’ s Bridge , which facilitates the inward and outward connection of the site to Hell Creek and the broader community . The buildings are connected to the site and one another in an identical , all-encompassing , and singular way through the circle form that signifies unity and wholeness .
Jury Comments Tri-Faith Commons is a shared landscape between the Abrahamic faiths and joins them together in a powerful demonstration of their relatedness and interdependence . This sacred landscape bridges between the congregations in a display of unity and hope for the future .
Gaffer Photography
Ullem Chapel Moravia , Iowa
ASK Studio , Architect Moravia , Iowa
Ullem Chapel offers a framed view of a “ century tree ”— a ranch marker used for wayfinding throughout the hills — the chapel ’ s focus in a sacred landscape . The chapel is intended for the family that lives on this land , rendered with an agrarian frugality , and is intended as a temporal insertion to screen the ruins of houses belonging to past stewards in the nearby trees . The designers note , “ the march of the horizontal wall slats feels familiar , but in this context with gothic arches , there is tension .” The structure appears vernacular in this landscape , which generations of farmers have considered sacred , “ an understanding which is only known to those that visit ,” note the designers .
Jury Comments The chapel itself is united to this sacred landscape , which honors the generations of families that have farmed this Iowa land . The landscape gives the chapel its frame , supporting it as a destination across farm fields , a place of quiet respite .
Cameron Campbell , Integrated Studio Photography
SACRED PLACES • SUMMER 2021 23