2025 LAF Medal Winner
Kristina Hill, PhD, Associate Professor and Research Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the University of California, Berkeley, has been named as this year's honoree.
Launched in 2016 in conjunction with the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s (LAF) 50th anniversary, the LAF Medal and Founders’ Award are annual awards that honor those who have made significant and sustained contributions to LAF’s mission to support the preservation, improvement, and enhancement of the environment.
The LAF Medal is conveyed to a landscape architect for distinguished work over a career in applying the principles of sustainability to landscapes. Honorees come from private practice, academia, nonprofit and public sectors, exemplify the values of LAF, and have made a significant contribution to the advancement of the landscape architecture discipline. The 2025 LAF Medal goes to Kristina Hill, PhD.
A researcher, educator, community leader, and advocate working at the intersection of urban design, ecology, and social justice, Kristina is a leading expert on how cities can adapt to rising sea levels and rising groundwater due to climate change. She is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the College of Environmental Design and also serves as Research Director of the college's interdisciplinary research hub, the Institute of Urban and Regional Development.
By providing design expertise and strategic advice to public agencies and private organizations, Kristina helps shape regional strategies for climate resilience in the San Francisco Bay Area and has also worked in Seattle, New Orleans, and coastal Virginia. Her work highlights the intersection of climate vulnerability and social justice, and she advocates for community-engaged planning to ensure that adaptation strategies are equitable.
Throughout her career she has stimulated discussion and action to raise the voice of landscape architecture into the technical disciplines and policies affecting our environment including hydrology, civil engineering, transportation, domestic water and the marine environment. Equally important, she has impacted and inspired her students and they have gone forward to effect change and instill in others the need to push further.
LAF Medal and Founders' Award Committee
Before coming to Berkeley, Kristina served as chair of the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Virginia and has been a member of the faculty at the University of Washington, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Iowa State University. She has authored dozens of journal articles, essays, and book chapters, and co-edited the book Ecology and Design: Frameworks for Learning. Kristina lectures internationally on climate adaptation and urban design and is known for empowering students to see themselves as changemakers.
"I'm grateful and pleasantly surprised to receive this award and want to thank LAF for bringing together a national community of people I admire for their courage and commitment," Kristina said. "The world is changing, and over the last 15 years LAF's programs have helped to prepare our profession for the challenges we face. The time has come to be brave and inspire each other to design for climate adaptation with justice."
2025 Awards Committee
The LAF Board Emeritus Council manages the nomination and selection process for the awards. Members of the 2025 Awards Committee were:
- Gayle Berens, Gayle Berens Consulting
- Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, FASLA, the Collaborative
- Michael Johnson, SmithGroup
- Peg Staeheli, FASLA, MRS A&D
- Kate Tooke, Agency Landscape + Planning
- Chris Torres, Agency Artifact
- McKenzie Wilhelm, Coen+Partners
