Nine US landscape architecture students will be helping green the US Mission to the UN in Geneva

Winning landscape architecture students discuss their plans
Winning landscape architecture students discuss their plans

Nine US landscape architecture students will spend the first two weeks of August studying the grounds surrounding the US Mission to the United Nations in Geneva and drafting a sustainable landscape design that can be phased in over five years.

The US Mission to the United Nations in Geneva building regularly hosts diplomats from around the world for important discussions including the recent negotiations on the New START nuclear treaty.

In 2009 the Mission became the first State Department facility to be awarded the Certified Wildlife Habitat title by the U.S. National Wildlife Federation and is now home to the largest State Department solar energy project outside the US. It houses an innovative magnetic levitation (MaglevTM) chiller air conditioning system that runs a virtually friction-free compressor.

The students, who were chosen by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) from more than 130 applicants, will work alongside three Swiss landscape architecture students and under the guidance of three American landscape architecture educators, to deliver a sustainable landscape design that improves the landscape’s performance while also demonstrating American expertise.

ASLA Executive Vice President and CEO, Nancy Somerville, welcomed the students saying: “This model project will demonstrate the central role the profession plays in addressing environmental issues.”

The project is part of a larger commitment by the State Department to sustainable design at its embassies and diplomatic facilities around the world.

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