Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design
|
COGdesign is a non-profit service organization
offering:
- quality
landscape design for community-based groups;
- meaningful
professional experience for student and practicing
landscape designers;
- volunteer
opportunities for those interested in strengthening
communities by creating and improving neighborhood green
spaces.
COGdesign clients include affordable housing, public and private schools,
neighborhood parks, Friends groups, churches, municipal
agencies, historic sites, and community gardens. (see
Map)
COG designers are trained landscape design
professionals and students who work pro bono on these
projects.
COGdesign serves as a facilitator between the
community organizations seeking landscape design
services and the landscape designers looking for
professional development opportunities and
community-based field experience. Projects may be undertaken by individual
designers, as studio projects at the Landscape Institute
of the Arnold Arboretum, by design students as thesis
projects, or as community events. Design services are available to community groups
which satisfy COGdesign’s eligibility requirements (client
FAQs) and at minimal cost to the client.
Our clients, the community organizations, benefit
from the innovative and creative work of COG’s
designers. The designers are engaged with projects that offer them
challenging field experience, portfolio material, and
the satisfaction that comes from improving the community
landscape. |
|
|
|
|
|
NEWS
|
Celebrating 15 Years of Greening Communities
|
Mitchell School Courtyard design and illustration by Alice Evans
During 2012, join COGdesign in a retrospective look at the process and outcome of community greening projects – developing partnerships, supporting clients' missions, institutionalizing use and maintenance, hearing from the users. A schedule of events announced soon.
|
CONVERSATION with Two Authors about One Writer's Garden
|
|
Coauthors Jane Roy Brown and Susan Haltom talk about writing One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place and about Miss Welty's passionate connection to her garden in Jackson, Mississippi – a source of inspiration and refuge. The garden’s development parallels early 20th century movements for women’s independence and useful enterprise.
>> Read the CONVERSATION
|
Roxbury Y Garden Turns Green
|
|
September 2011 – Staff and volunteers from the Roxbury YMCA, COGdesign, and the local community planted hundreds of leafy trees, shrubs, and perennials to further the vision of a new green space in this urban neighborhood. The ribbon cutting will be part of the May Fair in the garden!
>> Project Sheet
>> Help Support the Garden
|
CONVERSATION with the High Line’s
Melissa Fisher
|
|
Not so long ago, some NYC residents thought an old, rusted rail line, running above the meat packing district, was an eyesore. Now, it’s a beloved and very high profile public park in Manhattan. Melissa Fisher, High Line Director of Horticulture and Park Operations, coordinates the complexities of this magical place!
>> Conversation with Melissa Fisher
|
Roxbury Y Groundbreaking
|
|
July – August 2011 – The teens breaking ground for the new Roxbury Y garden had a challenging task, but A Yard and A Half Landscaping made short shrift of installing the garden’s structure! Plants arrive in September.
Your $10 contribution will help plant the garden!
>> Support a square foot
>> Project Sheet
|
Shrubbery Planted at Dorchester Historical Society
|
|
June 2011 – A new phase of the COG-designed master plan for the Dorchester Historical Society (DHS) was planted this summer by COGdesign Planting Brigade’s horticultural trainees. A collection of mixed shrubs, or Shrubbery, popular during the 19th century, now defines an interpretive area of the DHS landscape. COG’s designers Carolyn Cooney and Jane Coutre selected era-appropriate plant material with ornamental features to enhance the visitors’ experience.
>>
Project Sheet
|
Gore Place Farm in 21st Century
|
|
May 2011 – COG’s designer Danielle Desilets was asked by Gore Place staff to “provide a place to experience the history of the estate and to re-establish a connection with the land” belonging to this federal era estate on the Waltham/Watertown border. Her resulting master plan for the estate’s four acres of farmland separates contemporary farming practices from the areas of historical interpretation, provides some privacy for the resident farmer, and defines new access points and patterns for visitors.
>>
Project Sheet
|
Symphony Park Concept Approved
|
|
February 2011 – After a series of community meetings and Boston Parks Department design review, the Fenway Civic Association (FCA) has a new concept for improving the usability and appearance of Symphony Park. According to FCA member Marie Fukuda, COG’s designers Jon Pate and Lisa Esterrich developed a concept for the park that was sensitive to the needs of the neighbors, including students and a large elderly population, and addressed improved access for all.
> Project Sheet
|
Embassy Park Design Competition
|
Professional 1st Place: Herrera Nielsen Design, Brooklyn, NY
|
|
Please see EVENTS &
NEWS for more special project events!
|
|
;){kind=link}