Election Section

A planning document for the UC Berkeley campus has won an unusual accolade. The university’s Landscape Heritage Plan is receiving a Webby Award this year. Sometimes referred to as the “Oscars of the Internet,” the Webbys honor high quality and innovative website design. 

In each competition category, two Webby awards are given, one by a panel of judges and the other by a “People’s Voice” online vote open to the public for two weeks. The Landscape Heritage Plan received the “People’s Voice” Webby in the newly instituted “School/Education” competition category. 

The plan was developed by both UC Berkeley staff and a team of researchers and consultants organized by the San Francisco office of Sasaki Associates, a major private sector planning firm. The plan was put online for easy public access and the website, for which Cody Andresen of San Francisco was the lead designer, won the Webby. 

The Landscape Heritage Plan (LHP), finished in 2004, is one in a series of UC Berkeley planning documents, including the New Century Plan (NCP), which was the program statement for the recently adopted UC Berkeley Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). 

A third addition to this alphabet soup of acronyms was the Landscape Master Plan (LMP). The master plan spelled out a sequence of desirable landscape improvements for the campus. 

The Heritage Plan, supported with a grant from the Getty Foundation, went further, studying in detail the evolution of, and recommending historically appropriate improvements for, the historic landscape in the campus “Classical Core.” 

The character of these outdoor spaces, generally grouped around the University’s older stone buildings, evolved from the work of distinguished designers including Frederick Law Olmsted, John Gregg, John Galen Howard, and Thomas Church. 

The Landscape Heritage Plan can be seen at www.cp.berkeley.edu/lhp. A full list of Webby winners is at www.webbyawards.com.