Academy Homes I, Roxbury, MAShirley Eustis House, Roxbury, MAPuddingstone Garden, Roxbury, MAPine Street Inn Residence, Brookline, MA

 

Visit our Major Sponsors:

200 Moody Street LLC

NEFA

MCC

Waltham Services, Inc.

Waltham West Suburban Chamber of Commerce

New England Landscape Design & History Association

The Elephant Walk in Waltham

 

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

Winners Selected!
View the winning submissions to COGdesign's INTERNATIONAL design competition! Visit www.embassy-park.org/winners

> Design Competition Report
> PRESS coverage
> Embassy Park Project Sheet

 

Please see EVENTS & NEWS for more special project events!  

 

   

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