ValleyCrest takes home eight PLANET awards

 CALABASAS, Calif. – ValleyCrest Landscape Cos. received eight 2011 PLANET Awards at the 42nd annual Green Industry Conference awards show and reception in Louisville, Ky. ValleyCrest took home a prestigious 2011 Judges Award as well as seven Environmental Improvement Awards from the PLANET. ValleyCrest's Tom Donnelly (center) accepts the Judges Award from incoming PLANET President Norman Goldenberg (left) and PLANET President Jerry Grossi.

PLANET’s Judges Award recognizes the best landscape in the country. ValleyCrest received the award for its work on Miami Beach SoundScape, an innovative project that serves as the outdoor foyer to Frank Gehry’s latest concert hall project, the New World Symphony ‘Music Box.’ Setting a new tone for the future of city parks, this 125,000-square-foot park embraces South Florida culture by offering New World Symphony supporters and the general public alike an interactive, communal indoor/outdoor concert experience.

ValleyCrest earned five PLANET Grand Awards for commercial landscape projects ranging from a luxury resort design/build restoration project in Hawaii resulting from tsunami damage suffered earlier this year; three major U.S. museums, including two in Florida and one in Texas, and a central park in North Carolina. The company won a Merit Award for a resort hotel in Florida, as well as a Distinction Award for a Major League Baseball Spring Training facility in Scottsdale, Ariz., which recently received LEED Platinum certification.

“It was exciting for me to attend the PLANET Awards this year and to celebrate with so many landscape industry professionals,” said Tom Donnelly, president of ValleyCrest Landscape Development. “I was especially honored this year to accept the prestigious PLANET Judges’ Award for our work on Miami Beach SoundScape, along with our five Grand Awards, one Merit Award and one Distinction Award. Receiving a PLANET Award confirms the highest standards of quality continues to be upheld in the projects designed, built or maintained by ValleyCrest.”  Miami Beach SoundScape won a 2011 Judges Award.

ValleyCrest’s 2011 PLANET Judges, Grand, Merit, and Distinction Award recipients:

2011 Judges Award: Miami Beach SoundScape, Miami

2011 Grand Awards:
Project: Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu Restoration, Hawaii
Category: Commercial Design/Build – Above $1,000,000

Project: Miami Beach SoundScape, Miami
Category: Commercial Landscape Contracting – Above $1,000,000

Project: Pack Square Park, Asheville, N.C.
Category: Commercial Landscape Contracting – Above $1,000,000

Project: Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Category: Commercial Landscape Contracting – Above $1,000,000

Project: Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
Category: Commercial Landscape Management – Institutional

2011 Merit Award:
Project: Hyatt Coconut Plantation, Bonita Springs, Fla.
Category: Commercial Landscape Management – Office and Industrial Sites/Hotel and Resorts

2011 Distinction Award:
Project: Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Category: Commercial Landscape Contracting – Above $1,000,000