Pedagogy and Open Space: A Design for Learning

This is a case study about landscape design students becoming a part of the community through their work with a small piece of urban land. It is about making connections, learning through service, and the desire to create a sense of place while improving environmental conditions. The story of North Gate Park on the Paint Branch is about the will of the community to go beyond compliance of environmental regulations and to meet the challenge of seeking ecological balance in a city that has become burdened by the weight of the automobile. It tells of partnerships in service to nature and people, and team building through funding grants, city council hearings, design review board meetings, and multiple-agency co-operation. It is about innovative thinking for environmental change and how the process for turning land into place included university teaching, research and outreach. It is also a reflection on two unanticipated by-products of the design process – a change in how students perceive their education and a community’s reaffirmation of its values and commitments