AECOM has been awarded the Award of Excellence by the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) at the Asia-Pac LA Awards 2017 for “River of Life – Early Works Package” (EWP) under the “Cultural and Urban Landscape Category”.rnrn
The IFLA Asia-Pac LA Awards are a prestigious, international platform showcasing and promoting the achievements and work of leading landscape architects working across the Asia Pacific region. The awards gala ceremony was held last 4th November 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The EWP is part of the first phase of Malaysia’s River of Life Master Plan, a mega-project that seeks to regenerate the Klang and Gombak Rivers in Malaysia’s largest city and commercial capital, Kuala Lumpur. The EWP includes Kuala Lumpur’s Heritage Quarter, the historic, geographical and social heart of the 7.2 million population, metropolitan Greater Kuala Lumpur region. AECOM was appointed by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur or DBKL) to deliver the river beautification stage of the project. The ROL project encompasses as 10.7km spread of riverfront, including the confluence of the Gombak and Klang rivers, with a total area of 781 hectares and 63 hectares of water bodies.
Components of the EWP included revitalizing the biological heart of the river, improving water quality to support new life, initiating new flood control measures including rebuilding embankments, creating well-lit pedestrian-friendly areas and providing a new destination in the core of Kuala Lumpur for local residents and international visitors. The River of Life is a key project in Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Programme, a portfolio of projects designed to propel Malaysia into developed economy status and accelerate Kuala Lumpur’s ascent as a Tier-One global city.
“We are passionate at AECOM about the transformative power of the work we do for Asia’s great cities and we are honored the IFLA sought to recognize our work for Kuala Lumpur’s iconic River of Life project,” said Feisal Noor, Vice President, Buildings + Places, Southeast Asia. “The Klang River is where Kuala Lumpur’s began, many years ago and had been forgotten for so long. That we have received international recognition for the role we’ve played in giving life back to Kuala Lumpur’s heart, through our best-in-class design, planning, engineering, cost and project management services, is an incredibly proud moment for the 800 members of the AECOM team in Malaysia.”