Bay Area
Drawings of Golden Gate Village Win 2021 Landscape Architecture Competition
The HALS Challenge is a national competition sponsored by the National Park Service to document historic landscape projects. This year’s prompt was to document landscapes in Black communities. The winners of the HALS Challenge were announced at the annual American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) HALS Meeting on Nov. 21, 2021.
By Godfrey Lee
A submission of eight photographs and historical drawings and the story of Marin City’s Golden Gate Village by Douglas Nelson, a landscape architect in Mill Valley, won first place in the 12th annual Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) Challenge.
The HALS Challenge is a national competition sponsored by the National Park Service to document historic landscape projects. This year’s prompt was to document landscapes in Black communities. The winners of the HALS Challenge were announced at the annual American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) HALS Meeting on Nov. 21, 2021.
“Black people have built and shaped the American landscape in immeasurable ways,” wrote Chris Stevens, who is HALS’s acting chief at the National Park Service. “Examining these histories and spaces will expand our understanding of America’s past and future. From plantations to segregated cities, the nation’s landscapes retain the physical manifestations of our racist history.
“Yet historic Black landscapes also represent creative achievements and reflect Black culture, as seen in residential gardens, parks, and college campuses across this country,” Stevens continued. “Documenting historic Black landscapes will reveal patterns of community that have been built over the course of 400 years.”
Nelson had been following the news of Golden Gate Village (GGV) for several years and was inspired to use the GGV as a submission for the HALS Challenge. His report in his submission includes the history of GGV, the landscape characteristics and layout of the buildings, and the legacy of the GGV.
After the submission won, Nelson wrote to Royce McLemore of the Marin Independent Journal and said that he is glad to see that the Marin County Housing Authority is starting a reset to plan the future of Golden Gate Village, and that he hopes “that the National Register of Historic Places status and now the Historic American Landscape Survey documentation will be useful in preserving Golden Gate Village in a way that is beneficial for the residents.”
