Finalists’ Designs

First Place: Entry # 118: Gala Simon Associates Inc. (GSA)

Watertown, MA

During the past 10 years, GEO Consulting Engineers Inc., now Gala Simon Associates, has provided professional engineering and design services throughout Massachusetts. Project work has included site analysis, zoning, permitting, working drawings and construction administration. This year GEO was renamed Gala Simon Associates because the company expanded to provide both civil engineering and in-house landscape architectural services. Gala Simon offers a broad range of construction design skills, including site surveys, site layout, planting design, pool design, fountains, seating and retaining wall design, sculptures, memorials, site furnishings, lighting design, and subdivisions plans. Gala Simon also provides consultation services for feasibility studies, land-use planning, development planning, permitting and construction administration.

Second Place: Entry #19: Stephen Stimson Associates

Falmouth, MA

Stimson, founded in 1992, has worked on national projects, including master plans; university campuses; corporate headquarters; parks; private gardens. It has won numerous awards, including a merit award for design from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1999 for the Thomas Prince School; and merit awards from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects for Menomonee Park in 2002 and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Stimson is doing work there, as well as at Harvard Biological Research and Harvard Science Center, and work on a national memorial. Stimson's past work includes a number of colleges and universities, including Trinity, Kenyon, Wesleyan, and Brandeis. Team members are Carolyn Burke, Soren deNiord, Masha Hranjec, Chai Pattamasattayassonthi, Tom Lee, Stephen Stimson, Eddie Marshal, Angela Tanner.

Third Place: Entry # 153: Benjamin Kou

Cambridge, MA

Born in England and raised in Hong Kong, received a bachelor of arts in art history from Clark University in Worcester in 1993. He moved to Boston to pursue architecture, and worked at Cambridge Seven Associates. In 1999, Kou received a master of architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won the Francis Ward Chandler Prize, awarded to the outstanding master of architecture student for achievement in architectural design. After graduating from MIT, Kou worked with Atelier Jullian and Pendleton of Boston before joining a New York City-based animation and visualization company, Iomedia. He managed a Boston branch and became director of marketing. In 2001, Kou returned to architecture and joined Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates in Boston as a senior designer. Benjamin has worked on biotechnology buildings, high-end residential projects, and is designing a marine institute for a higher education client in Rhode Island.

Fourth Place: Entry # 77: Ben Smoot

Brookline, MA

A Massachusetts native, attended the University of Virginia and graduated in 2003 with a degree in design. He spent a summer term studying architecture in Vicenza, Italy. He works for William Rawn Associates, architects in Boston, and is involved in the design of the new federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Fifth Place: Entry # 111: Chuni Wang

Waltham, MA

A registered architect, was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and lived for many years in South and Central America. She moved to the United States to pursue a bachelor's degree and later a master's degree in architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, where her final thesis project won the prestigious SGF Prize Award. She has become a U.S. citizen, and, after graduating from Georgia Institute's master's program, she moved to Massachusetts because of its rich history and culture.