By their design, environments such as arboreta, botanical gardens, and parks foster engaging learning experiences. It is imperative that this design approach translate to school landscapes and surroundings, since these contexts are integral to children's daily lives. As such, school landscapes can foster experiences that build ecological literacy, enrich children's well-being, and enhance formal, nonformal, and informal learning. These benefits also extend to members of the surrounding community. This section discusses three school landscape contexts using Seattle case studies:
- school landscapes: T.T. Minor Elementary School;
- local parks: Dearborn Park Elementary School; and
- neighborhood and community resources: Meadowbrook Pond.
The concepts presented in this paper serve as a lens to view each case study by:
- conditions and the designer's role;
- design and development process, with references from Section 4;
- design approaches and qualities, with references from Section 3; and
- experiential values for school and community, with references from Sections 2 and 3.
5.1 School Landscapes: T.T. Minor Elementary School, Seattle
The design and development of schools on new sites offer unique opportunities and challenges. Opportunities to save and use mature trees and natural areas can provide enriched outdoor learning environments, yet access to future users for a design participatory process may be limited. The redevelopment of existing school landscapes holds challenges as well, given preconceptions of how the site has functioned for both students and the surrounding community. The ongoing redevelopment of Seattle's T.T. Minor Elementary School has features of both a new and existing school, and offers insights for engaging design processes and qualities that includes multiple constituents.
5.1.1 Conditions and designer's role
T.T. Minor is located in Seattle's Central Area neighborhood(figure 23), and is being transformed both inside and outside. In 1995, it was identified for a long-term academic investment by businessman/philanthropist Stuart Sloan. The New School at T.T. Minor Foundation was formed and started planning in 1996, with a vision of attending to every child's personal and academic needs. Featuring a nearly year-round school year and extended day offerings, the new academic program got underway in the fall of 1998 for prekindergarten and kindergarten students, with a new grade level added with each year as these students advance (H. Miller 2000). This shift within the school brought many challenges, including changes in teaching staff.
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figure 23 T.T. Minor Elementary School is surrounded by a mixed uses, including varied density residential development to the south and east and a major commercial street that leads into downtown Seattle on the north. The site is bisected by a pedestrian path that connects these neighborhood features, and divides the two phased site improvements. source: City of Seattle Landview CD 1995, drawn by: Anita Madtes and Jose Sama |
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Amidst the academic transformation, the school's foundation project manager (and former superintendent of Parks) Holly Miller envisioned transforming the 2 1/2 acre site for school and neighborhood use. Within the site, a small playground consisting of two worn play structures was separated from the school by a parking lot. The playground had been leased by the City's Department of Parks and Recreation, and this agency supported improvements. To build community awareness and support, the school approached Barbara Biondo, a neighborhood resident who previously had worked to improve the school's front entry landscape. Biondo involved Denise Harnly, a representative of Seattle's East Precinct Crime Prevention Unit. While undertaking community outreach, they worked with the City's Department of Parks and Recreation to obtain grants from state, county and city programs, as well as a private foundation (Biondo 2000, Harnly 2000, Bullard 2000). An example of community commitment is seen with City's Neighborhood Matching Grant, which brought $100,000 to match the $100,000 value of neighborhood-based volunteer time and donations.
A neighborhood/school committee was organized, and received a City grant to develop a conceptual schoolgrounds masterplan. Through a competitive process, the committee selected Allworth Nussbaum in 1998. The completed masterplan was identified in two phases. The City's Department of Parks and Recreation made arrangements to lease play areas identified in the first phase, and hired Allworth Nussbaum to develop detailed design documents for construction. Phase two includes gardens and play areas on school property that is not formally shared by Parks and Recreation. With funding from Seattle's Grey to Green program and private contributions (see Section 2.4), Allworth Nussbaum was hired to design the phase two gardens.
5.1.2 Design and development process
Allworth Nussbaum developed the masterplan through a participatory process that sought to engage neighbors, school parents, children, teachers, school administrators, maintenance staff, and public agencies. Three design meetings were held with adults, and design workshops were held with students in each grade. This level of participation exceeded the design team's scope, but they believed that this broad-based involvement and support was essential for the project to succeed (Allworth 2000). Participatory techniques used in both adult and student forums provide insights.
• school/community participation
The design meetings for school and neighborhood participants focused on: 1) programming potentials, 2) creation of design alternatives, and 3) review of a preferred alternative. The neighborhood/school committee encouraged participation at the meetings, and found the best turnout occurred when a meeting was preceded by a student choir concert. At the programming meeting, ideas boards were used to open up dialogue of what was possible. Groups of 8-10 people worked with design staff to generate ideas and identify physical and visual connections to the neighborhood. Each group then presented their ideas to the others. The design alternatives meeting explored locational issues and aesthetic character. The preferred alternative meeting culminated the process, and visually recapped the previous meetings' discussions and outcomes. Following reviews, the masterplan was accepted, and Allworth Nussbaum developed detailed design for phase one in accordance with the masterplan.
In designing the phase two learning gardens, Allworth Nussbaum conducted a design charrette involving community members, artists, a master gardener, parents, teachers and school district staff who work with school gardens. The participants formed two groups to brainstorm and share ideas. These ideas were integrated into the gardens' detailed design.
• pedagogy
Although teachers and the principal were involved in the masterplanning meetings, participating teachers did not remain at the school after the new academic program was implemented (Adams 2000). This program promotes hands-on learning experiences, and current teachers may well draw upon the abundant opportunities for learning in the school's landscape. This integration of curriculum with design is happening with the second phase design of the children's learning gardens. Teachers participated in the design charrette, and are undertaking training in the fall of 2000 to apply NSF curriculum in using the gardens for each grade's curricular theme.
• children's participation
The masterplanning process included design workshops with children in each grade. These 90 minute interactive sessions, where children brainstormed on their most imaginative, fun places to play, also informed the design (Allworth 2000). To spark children's imagination, each workshop started with a series of ideas boards of creative play, plants, and other images. The design team provided a myriad of building materials, which children used to build models of fun play places. Children worked collaboratively, with younger children in pairs and older children in small groups. To understand their intentions, the design team interviewed children as they built the models. The models were displayed at a community design meeting. The resulting masterplan was reviewed by students and community members at a celebratory event. The masterplan was not presented in an interactive manner, thus the children's participation in the process seems to fit the "consulted and informed" rung on Hart's ladder of children's participation.
• development status
Funds for construction of phase one became available in July 1999, and construction continued through the spring of 2000. The work has been realized through extensive volunteer effort, coordination across agencies, and multiple grants. In 2000, funding for the design and construction phase two learning gardens was acquired through Seattle's Grey to Green Program (see Section 2.4) and private support. This fall, a volunteer work day initiated the gardens' construction, and an entry sign featuring children's tiles was unveiled. In spring 2001, a UW architecture department design build studio led by Professor Steve Bedaines plans to develop garden structures with seating and a double dutch court. The school's foundation continues to seek support for public art that would be created with the students and placed throughout the grounds (H. Miller 2000).
5.1.3 Design approaches and qualities
While the masterplan for T.T. Minor reflects community and school interests in active recreation, it also integrates the design qualities and themes that support learning described in Section 3 (figure 24). Both habitat and gardens define varied spaces, and art features will enliven paving and site structures. A guiding concern throughout the project's design was crime, which was addressed by activating the site with multiple uses and visibility. Referencing qualities noted in Section 3, the masterplan incorporates:
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figure 24 T.T. Minor Elementary School masterplan’s phase 1 provides an open play field surrounded by a running track with play structures to the south. Native plantings screen the play structures from parking. Phase 2 includes ball courts and learning gardens. design and image by: Allworth Nussbaum Landscape Architecture and Planning |
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• natural and cultural systems
Despite the predominance of the play field and play structures, natural systems are found in native planting areas and the planned learning gardens. The native planting areas extend into the play area with the placement of logs and rocks (figure 25). The planned garden plots will enable students to care for plants and observe changes over time. Cultural features may include public art installations, and choices of garden plot themes.
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figure 25 Logs and rocks are found in the native planting area. photo by: author |
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• connections
The masterplan provides connections at many scales through views, paths and places. Classrooms that face the phase two landscape will have foreground views of the children's gardens. This contrasts sharply with current views through chain link fencing to a paved parking area (figure 26). A grade change at the south end of the site had limited views into the school grounds from the adjacent street. A series of low walls and vegetated slopes, now extend views into the site's play structure area. A new overlook seating area offers a view of the neighborhood and downtown. The site's promenade functions as a visual and physical link within and beyond the site. While linking the varied site features, the promenade also enables pedestrians to cross the site easily (figure 27).
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figure 26 The children's gardens are being built in front of this wing, where asphalt has dominated. photo by: author |
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figure 27 The promenade, with trees set in raised planters, serves as a central spine through the site. photo by: author |
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• legible and complex image
The masterplan, and constructed first phase, offer a legible image, resulting from the central promenade and prominent entries and the visually connected play facilities and gardens. Complexity is likely to be realized over time as the plantings mature, to screen and spatially define areas. Seasonal changes in habitat and garden areas will offer intricacy, and the inclusion of art installations may bring new layers of meaning to the landscape.
• varied scales
The masterplan's geometry relates primarily to the building and block patterns, but alternatives in paths and places also are created. The promenade serves as a central spine, with paths leading off it to an amphitheatre-like seating area, building entries, and the planned gardens. The vast open play field is contrasted in scale by the smaller structure play areas, and peripheral seating areas (figure 28). Landforms define the amphitheatre seating area, as well as a planned sunken court for double dutch jump rope, a popular school activity. Individual, child-sized spaces are less apparent. Over time, the plants, boulders and logs in the habitat area may create child-sized refuges.
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figure 28 A small amphitheater overlooking the play structure is set in the slope below the play field. photo by: author |
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• flexibility
Although active recreational facilities occupy much of the site, the central promenade and its entries provide opportunities as flexible, open-ended spaces that can be used in varied ways, with activities extending into the paved play courts or grass field. Loose parts, or elements that can be changed and re-created, are limited, although the future children's gardens could support such experiences.
• aesthetic quality
The masterplan and first phase of construction promote an aesthetic that responds to the urban context and recreational priorities while creating unique expressions of place. The habitat area along the colorful play structures contains boulders and logs of the region. The sunken double dutch courtyard is planned will inscriptions of songs used in the game, and other art installations will be developed with children's participation. The learning gardens will provide children opportunities to create ever-changing compositions.
5.1.4 Experiential values for school and community
The masterplanning process and design for T.T. Minor highlights the school landscape's potentials for shared school and community use. The site traditionally had been heavily used by neighborhood residents for weekend basketball and recreation, and as a pedestrian connection between residences and local shops. These uses are enhanced with attention to concerns about crime, as well as the community's need for a focal point (Biondo 2000). As a learning environment, there are numerous opportunities for the site to serve as a stage and as a medium for curriculum and play. The project's second phase holds unique learning opportunities. Children's participation in the design process may be integrated with curricula while informing the design. The phase two learning gardens could be developed with volunteer mentors from the community. This landscape may well provide school children and community members with key learning experiences described in Section 3:
• sensation
While the play field, courts, and structures offer a myriad of physical challenges, other senses may be engaged by the habitat and gardens. For example, edible, fragrant, and textured plants provide settings where one can taste, touch, smell and listen.
• choices
The masterplan provides opportunities for a variety of activities, social interaction, and movement. Of particular note is the play structure area's perimeter, with choices in being a part of the play activity, watching from a bench or the amphitheatre, or being separate at the overlook or steps along the west edge.
• manipulation
Although art installations may provide children with opportunities to effect change in the environment, the learning gardens hold tremendous opportunities for on-going manipulation. The play structures of phase one provide interactive, movable parts, yet for children seeking open-ended manipulation, the play area's bark chips may become material for the imagination.
• sense of place
The masterplan's participatory planning process has resulted in community and school constituents who supported its features by actively contributing to its creation. Over time, the settings will take on added meaning with continued use, community events, and formal learning programs.
5.2 Local Parks: Dearborn Park Elementary School, Seattle
Many existing schools lack space for diverse habitats or community activities. Yet adjacent or nearby parks may become an integral part of a school's learning environment. Partnerships with local parks departments, other open space agencies, and non-profit organizations can benefit school children, neighbors, and the local ecosystem. Such creative connections have enriched Dearborn Park Elementary School and its adjacent urban forest and park in central Seattle.
5.2.1 Conditions and designer's role
The forested landscape around Dearborn Park Elementary contrasts sharply with the surrounding grid of residential and commercial development (figure 29), and this unique setting has become a focus for hands-on, integrated studies for all students. Interest in outdoor learning interests got underway in 1994, when the school created an International Garden. Concurrently, the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation was seeking assistance from the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to secure an adjacent, privately owned wooded ravine as community open space. TPL had initiated a national "Green Cities Initiative" to secure land within cities for parks and open space, and empower neighborhood groups in the process. TPL staff recognized the opportunity to expand the forest's role as a learning environment for the school, and the idea was welcomed by the school's principal and teachers.
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figure 29 Dearborn Park Elementary School is sited in an enclave of parkland, forest and wetland amidst an urban neighborhood. source: City of Seattle Landview CD 1995, drawn by: Anita Madtes and Jose Sama |
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The former principal envisioned creating a model educational program, and various organization representatives and school leaders came together to tailor a curriculum that was integrated through hands-on environmental studies of the forest. The Washington Forest Protection Association provided curriculum and teacher training.
As this environment-based curriculum was implemented under the leadership of a new principal, forest clean-up and improvement efforts got underway. On Earth Day 1996, teachers, students, TPL staff, Parks and Recreation staff, and other volunteers removed invasive plants and debris from the forest. Clean-up efforts continued, with each class taking on a portion of the site. A path that once connected the school with the neighborhood was re-established and a bridge was built to cross the ravine.
In addition to the forest, a wetland on the school site and the adjacent Dearborn Park were identified as valuable educational resources. In 1997, Allworth Nussbaum was hired with funds from the Trust for Public Land to develop a comprehensive masterplan. The client was a project committee including representatives from TPL, the School District, the Department of Parks and Recreation, as well as the principal and teachers. Design work for the school's wetland has proceeded with support from a local foundation, and construction is being supported with funds from Seattle's Grey to Green Program.
5.2.2 Design and development process
Dearborn Park Elementary's masterplanning process was initiated through the school, with potentials for children's learning as a primary objective. Allworth Nussbaum's participatory process was inclusive, engaging neighbors, school parents, children, teachers, school administrators, maintenance staff, and other agencies.
• school/community participation
As with T.T. Minor's masterplan process, three design meetings were held with school and community constituents to address programming potentials, creation of design alternatives, and review of a preferred alternative.
• pedagogy
Dearborn's principal and teachers were committed to enriching the students' learning experiences, and had used the urban forest through an integrated curriculum. They viewed students' involvement in the design process as part of curriculum, and worked with the design team on site analysis and programming projects (Allworth 2000).
• children's participation
The design team developed materials describing site analysis and programming for activities the teachers used with their curriculum. Academic skills and problem solving techniques were applied, as student groups undertook site analysis and programming exercises in the landscape. Like the process used at TT Minor, each grade took part in a design workshop, and built models to express their ideas (figure 30). Design team members talked with the students about their intentions and goals. Rendered drawings of the masterplan were later posted at the school for classes to review.
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figure 30 Dearborn Park Elementary School students used a collage of materials to explore their design ideas in workshops led by the design team. photo by: Allworth Nussbaum Landscape Architecture and Planning |
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As with T.T. Minor, Dearborn children's participation in the design process seems to fit Hart's ladder rung of "consulted and informed," although here they played a more significant role as consultants. Findings from their site analysis and programming activities provided valuable insights to the design team. These activities also provided a self-defined basis for the design ideas students developed in the workshops. This broader exposure gave students an opportunity to experience the design process as a method they can use in other contexts.
Beyond participation in the design process, children continue to take an active role in developing and sustaining habitat and gardens as part of their formal studies and nonformal learning. During initial forest clean-ups, naturalists from the Department of Parks and Recreation helped students identify invasive species and remove them. Today, each class is responsible for caring for part of the landscape (Lassiter 2000). Children in kindergarten, first, and second grades care for the native plant garden and international vegetable garden, pulling weeds and composting. Fourth grade students planted native plant and butterfly gardens, and tend the latter with third graders. Fifth grade students continue to remove invasive species from the urban forest and maintain the trail. In 1998, a class of fifth graders prepared a successful grant application for equipment and supplies to maintain the forest. Additionally, these students can earn a "forest guide" certificate and become mentors for younger students.
• development status
The masterplan for the school and surroundings is complete, and the wetland's outdoor classroom has been designed and awarded funding through Seattle's Grey to Green Program (see Section 2.4). Portions of the masterplan have been implemented, including the native plant and butterfly gardens and a ceremonial forest gateway (figure 31). Adorned with bronze leaves and vines, the gateway was created through a creative collaboration: Dearborn students made clay leaves which a high school art class referenced to make enlarged bronze castings, and students from a community college incorporated the leaves and vines with the gateway. The principal hopes to develop interpretive signage throughout the forest and gardens for students and community members (Fairchild 2000). Maintenance of the school and park land is coordinated through monthly meetings attended by representatives from both agencies and a representative of the Washington Forest Protection Association (Fairchild 2000).
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figure 31 The new forest gateway features bronze leaves and vines created through a partnership of schools and student creativity. photo by: Allworth Nussbaum Landscape Architecture and Planning |
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5.2.3 Design approaches and qualities
Dearborn Park Elementary's masterplan draws upon and enriches existing habitat and creates culturally expressive gardens and features (figure 32). The site is an oasis in an urban neighborhood, offering unique opportunities for students and the community to have daily contact with nature as well as build understandings of its cultural meanings and values. All landscape qualities discussed in Section 3 are evident:
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figure 32 Dearborn Park Elementary School’s masterplan features an arc of plots for the international garden along parking, as well as the upper forest entry and native plant garden. Wetlands are located to the right and above the school, and the lawn (upper left) features a stage area. design and image by: Allworth Nussbaum Landscape Architecture and Planning |
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• natural and cultural systems
Existing natural systems have become a focus for hands-on learning and stewardship, and cultures are celebrated through vegetation and artifacts. The ravine, forest, wetland and gardens are varied settings for manipulation and discovery. The international garden provides unique opportunities for children to learn about the foods and cultures of the diverse student body. Other site features relate cultural and artistic understandings, such as the forest gateway and another planned for the wetland entry.
• connections
There are strong connections within and beyond the school site afford at local and regional scales, however the immediate visual connections from inside the school to the landscape are missing. Classrooms have window openings above eye level, but have doors to the outside. However, there is limited and poorly defined transitional space for class gatherings immediately outside the classrooms (figure 33). Within the landscape, views and paths lead from open areas in front of the school that feature gardens and a sloping lawn to the densely vegetated forest, ravine, and wetland. The ceremonial gateway to the forest acts as a prominent marker for the trail system that winds through and connects with the neighborhood. The intermittent stream in the ravine, provides the actual and conceptual connections that educator David Sobel recommended for middle childhood, where the immediate landscape experience links to larger scales. During a forest tour, a 5th grader noted that this stream connects with Lake Washington and so pollution in this ravine will eventually impact the lake (Johnson and Summers 1998).
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figure 33 There is limited transitional space near the building for class gatherings. photo by: Anita Madtes |
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• legible and complex image
The school landscape and dense forest contrast sharply with the image of the surrounding neighborhood, and offer rich opportunities for exploration. Legibility is provided by pathways connecting various parts of the site with the centrally located school building, and reinforced by landmarks such as the gateway, bridge across the ravine, and planned artwork. The complexity of the varied landform and vegetation also supports personalized images of place through experience. For instance, on a forest tour, a student guide stopped along the trail to point out a fern off to one side. He described finding this fern, but being unable to identify it. He took a frond into the library and looked it up, and discovered that this was not a common fern. This experience marked a memorable location along the trail for him.
• varied scales
The school's gardens, grassy slopes, play areas, and forest offer diverse scales in paths and places. The adjacent park's open lawn accommodates field sports, and play structures are nearby. Grass slopes adjacent to the kindergarten classrooms at the front of the school are used to the point where erosion is a problem. This "front yard" faces the school's drop-off and loading area and becomes a social gathering space. Raised planters and gardens create numerous edges and sub-areas for groups to gather. The forest edges to lawn offer child-sized spaces for prospect and refuge. Within the forest, a trail system traverses a variety of spaces as it winds down the slope and along the ravine to the field below. Logs in a forest clearing provide an informal gathering area (figure 34).
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figure 34 The forest's lower entry can function as a gathering space. design and image by: Allworth Nussbaum Landscape Architecture and Planning |
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• flexibility
The landscape's size and diversity ensures flexibility in space and loose parts for children's explorations and formal learning activities. The site's natural features inherently provide these opportunities, and built elements support them as well. A terrace in the park may function as a classroom or stage for inspired play. The school's front yard can accommodate large and small groups of people, and its vegetable and native plant gardens display seasonal changes for an ever-evolving character.
• aesthetic quality
While this forested landscape is a unique environment for a central Seattle school, the planned interpretive spaces and features will add another layer of meaning. These features are envisioned to complement the diverse habitats as well as relate to their cultural context. For example, the school's front gardens are for vegetables of school families' homelands, butterfly attraction, and interpretative native plant exhibits.
5.2.4 Experiential values for school and community
Dearborn Park Elementary's landscape illustrates how an urban green space can provide valuable habitat, recreation, and learning potentials by partnering school, park, and community resources. The school's joint use agreement with the city allows students to use the forest and park playground (Lassiter 2000). Although the forest is (and wetland will be) available to students only during supervised class sessions, these areas are used regularly. The urban forest has been transformed as an accessible amenity for the surrounding neighborhood. The school landscape builds a sense of community among the school's families. The international vegetable garden is tended by student and family volunteers in the summer, and a harvest festival brings together school and neighboring families. This festival includes the foods of school families homelands, creating opportunities to build ties to the school and each other (Lassiter 2000). This unique environment supports key learning experiences for school children, their families, and other neighbors:
• sensation
The forest and wetland habitat offer sensory experiences unique in this neighborhood, including the sounds of water and birds, filtered light through forest canopy, and fragrances of damp earth and vegetation. Paths offer sequentially revealed views and wind around obstacles, calling attention to details above and below. The gardens provide opportunities to feel and taste plants as windows into other cultures. Play fields and play structures offer physical challenges.
• choices
As noted in "varied scales" above, a spectrum of choices are available for activities, sociability, and movement. Spaces for small groups or individuals are found in the forest, fields and gardens, and along the edges created by forest and built structures. Bare-soil paths along the forest edge attest to frequent use (Madtes 2000).
• manipulation
The gardens and forest provide rich and empowering experiences for children to manipulate objects and create environments. With classes regularly caring for portions of the landscape, the children experience firsthand how their interventions influence change over time.
• sense of place
A strong foundation for building a sense of place and stewardship among students is established by the comfortable settings, diversity of manipulable and habitable spaces, and formal curriculum that focuses site experiences. Opportunities for personal attachments to place are fostered through mentoring by older students and caring for a part of the site throughout each year. And the school's annual harvest festival with international foods is creating a tradition families coming together in this landscape as a community.