SCASLA Achievement Award
The judges highlighted the project’s strong research and analysis, with clear concepts and diagrams that were easy to understand. The evocative “Woven Basket” theme and precedent images brought a strong sense of place, while creative ideas like the tower walk stood out, even if they felt grand in scale. The sections and visuals were compelling, and the narrative showed thoughtful intent. Overall, a beautifully presented project with strong vision and creativity.
Renewed Purpose asks how landscape architecture can address social and environmental challenges as interconnected parts of a larger system, rather than as isolated problems.
In communities disproportionately impacted by incarceration, barriers to employment and reintegration often overlap with inequities such as pollution, food insecurity, limited access to green space, and neglected land. At the same time, nature- and gardening-based reentry programs highlight how horticultural therapy, workforce training, and opportunities to foster a sense of purpose and belonging can support successful reintegration. This project brings these ideas together by transforming a former landfill in Compton into a restorative public park that combines community green space, ecological rehabilitation, and landscape-based workforce development for returning citizens. Ultimately, Renewed Purpose demonstrates how a landscape transformation can shift cycles of compounding inequity toward cycles of mutual restoration, reframing stigmatized land and marginalized people as essential agents of care, productivity, and resilience.
About
Zoë Marans
Creativity has been a constant thread throughout my life. I’ve always been an admirer and maker of art, a lover of plants, and an endlessly curious problem-solver, but it took me some time to pursue a career that could bring all of those interests together. After earning a B.S. in Psychobiology from UCLA and spending more than a decade in marketing and technology, I returned to a passion I had first considered years earlier: landscape architecture. Over the past three years, I’ve had the opportunity to work in the field while completing the program, applying what I was learning in the classroom to residential projects throughout Southern California.
What I love about landscape architecture is how it brings together so many things that excite me: creativity and technical rigor, people and plants, and the opportunity to turn ideas into places that can be experienced and enjoyed. I’m especially drawn to the potential for landscape architecture to address social and environmental challenges together, creating spaces that are beautiful and resilient while expanding access to nature, strengthening communities, and restoring ecological systems. I hope to build a career designing thoughtful public landscapes that make a meaningful difference in people’s everyday lives.