05/13/2026
We are thrilled to share that BENCH has won a 2026 CSLA Award of Excellence for DeHart Community Park. Situated in Kelowna’s Lower Mission neighbourhood, DeHart Community Park opened to the public in May 2025, and was immediately embraced by the community. It has been a delight to see how well-used it is, and to hear about how much it is enjoyed and appreciated.
The project sensitively integrates intensive active and passive programming into a high-performance, climate-positive framework. Carbon accounting was embedded into the design process from project initiation. Carbon and capital budgets were treated as parallel constraints, and the park was designed for 2080 climate projections to ensure long-term sequestration and resilience. BENCH led a highly collaborative design and implementation process, and the project’s success is the result of the diverse contributions of many. We congratulate and thank everyone who shared their unique perspectives, vision, knowledge, skills and time to make this project come to life.
To learn more about this year’s award recipients, visit www.csla-aapc.ca/awards/2026-awards-excellence. The list of award-winning projects is impressive and demonstrates the breath and ambition of landscape architecture projects happening in Canada. Congratulations to all of the winning teams!
Lead Consultant: BENCH Site Design
Client: City of Kelowna
Consultant Team:
EcoPlan International
Matthew Thomson Design
Ecoscape Environmental Consultants
Water Plan It Irrigation
Align Engineering
Smith + Andersen
RJC Engineers
Carscadden Stokes McDonald Architects
Velosolutions Canada
Vector Geomatics
Fletcher Paine Associates
Contractors:
Sierra Landscaping
R&L Excavacting
Photography:
Benjamin Walker Photography
