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Friends and neighbors of Raleigh City Farm:

We promised and the time is now for gathering your input on farm design. We are grateful to the team at in situ studio http://www.insitustudio.us/ for leading us in this process of site design, and we cordially invite you to an open house to review the draft design, offer input, ask questions, and catch up on farm news.

When: Drop-in Monday, January 23rd 5:30-7:00pm
Where: Hope Elementary Charter School Auditorium (1116 N Blount Street, enter at black awning on Blount Street)
Who: Neighbors, friends, potential funders and all interested folks

If you can come please rsvp to laura@raleighcityfarm.org. We look forward to seeing you then,

The Raleigh City Farm Team
http://raleighcityfarm.com/

The LAbash 2012 Conference will be hosted by the Florida International University Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in our main campus in Miami and our newly inaugurated facilities at 420 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach [ Miami Beach Urban Studios - MBUS ]. Our main activities throughout the conference will be based from our Miami Beach location, so please make your arrangements accordingly! If you have any questions, please refer to our website, as it is constantly being updated, or email us back at info@fiulabash2012.com

Our theme, Urban Oasis, will focus on the dynamic function that urban landscapes have in shaping the future of our cities. In recent years, landscape architecture has taken a more prominent role as a force that informs the urban condition and the critical relationships between humans and their urban environments. We would like to invite all students and professionals to participate in this exciting discussion and register today!

Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, Chicago USA
Client: Gary Comer Youth Center

Project Statement

The Gary Comer Youth Center Roof Garden is an after-school learning space for youth and seniors in a neighborhood with little access to safe outdoor environments. Last year alone, it produced over 1,000 pounds of organic food used by students, local restaurants and the center’s café. Sleek and graphic, it turns the typical working vegetable garden into a place of beauty and respite.

Project Narrative

Located in Chicago’s Grand Crossing neighborhood, the Gary Comer Youth Center offers a safe, welcoming after-school space for indoor activity. Its 8,160-square-foot green roof is a model for using traditionally underutilized space for urban agriculture and exceptional in its balance of an aesthetic vision with practical needs. The garden provides the crowning touch to an award-winning building recognized for its bold architecture.

The landscape architect worked closely with the architect and donor to develop a vision for a green roof to include a flower and working vegetable garden, and suggested that the center employ a full-time garden manager to enhance educational program development and manage maintenance. The result is a garden used in extremely creative ways for horticultural learning, environmental awareness, and food production.

Garden Stripes — Linear strips of recycled tire pavers are the framework for the garden and delineate the geometry of the corridor’s viewing windows. Photo: Scott Shigley
Must see larger image here.

While reducing climate control costs and providing an outdoor classroom, the green roof is able to withstand enthusiastic children digging for potatoes and carrots with garden tools. Soils 18–24 inches deep allow for viable food production, including cabbage, sunflowers, carrots, lettuce and strawberries. Sharp differences between ground temperatures and those on the roof mean that the rooftop is in a different climate zone and can be utilized throughout the winter. The resulting garden, only three years old, is still evolving.

Located on the second floor over the center’s gymnasium, the garden is surrounded by the circulation corridor and classrooms of the third floor. Floor-to-ceiling windows transform this working garden into a highly graphic viewing garden as students move from one classroom to another. Plastic lumber made from recycled milk containers forms pathways within the garden that align with the courtyard garden’s window frames. Metal circles scattered throughout the garden serve as elements of artistic expression even as they function as skylights, bringing outdoor illumination to the building’s gymnasium and café below.

http://www.asla.org/2010awards/377.html

http://www.lafoundation.org/scholarship/leadership-in-landscape/awards-available/

http://www.bowlthealley.com/

http://www.calpolyjobs.org/applicants/Central?quickFind=162481

http://www.landscape.calpoly.edu

Light rail, commuter rail, and expanded bus service are the focus of the newest Wake County public transportation plan. The Wake County Commissioners will now await the approval of individual town and city councils before moving forward with funding plans. Check out the link below for detailed information and additional maps.

http://www.wakeupwakecounty.org/cms/node/24

{Excerpt from Kickstarters}

Bountiful Backyards is an edible landscaping cooperative based in Durham, North Carolina. In the last 5 years we’ve planted more than 1,500 fruit trees and berry bushes, thousands of useful plants, and dozens of organic vegetable gardens. We work throughout the Triangle with people at their homes, schools, community centers, and parks. Our mission is to help people to grow more of their own food where they live, work, and play.

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