The Underwood Family Sonoran Landscape Laboratory at The University of Arizona was honored by the Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Ten Eyck Landscape Architects of Phoenix and Austin, Texas, which designed the project, won the Award of Excellence and the President's Award for the best project in Arizona landscape architecture during the Arizona Chapter's annual awards ceremony on April 25 in Phoenix. The design for the Underwood garden was one of five design projects honored.

Christy Ten Eyck, the principal of the firm and a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, presented the awards to the college at the event. School of Landscape Architecture Director Ron Stoltz said the awards will be mounted and displayed in the school's office.

The laboratory is part of the two-year-old expansion at the UA College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and was designed to exhibit key water and energy saving design features.

Those features includes an 11,000-gallon cistern that collects both rainwater and condensation from the building's central heating and air-conditioning system to irrigate a garden with native plants from five distinct Sonoran Desert biomes in Arizona, and a "green" façade to shade the southern exposure of the building. The system reduces the garden's need for potable water by as much as 83 percent.

A green roof laboratory currently under design will become experimental roof garden to test what southwest plant species can survive on a roof. It also will house solar panels that will generate 10 kilowatts of electricity to help power the building.