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The Kate's Club project was undertaken by three students in Professor Katherine Melcher's landscape engagement studio at the University of Georgia during the fall semester of 2020. The following blog entries were written throughout the course of semester to document the project.
Blog entries and project content were developed by Joshua Goeden, Pranisha Karmacharya, and Emily Whisenant.
Week 1: Project Introduction
Week 1: Project Introduction
Kate’s Club, a non-profit organization located in Atlanta at 1190 West Druid Hills Drive NE Suite T80 just off the Northeast Expressway, aims to empower children having experienced the loss of a parent or a sibling through advocacy, recreational and group support programs, engagement, and education. The club believes in the power of healing community to overcome that grief. A collaborative effort between Kate’s club and the LAND 7050 Engagement Studio led by Katherine Melcher, Associate Professor of the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia with student team consisting of three graduate students: Emily Whisenant, Joshua Goeden and Pranisha Karmacharya, this project seeks to achieve healing landscape design for the club through community participation.
As mentioned by Debra Brook, Director of Volunteer Services at Kate’s Club, their vision is to provide an interactive outdoor space so that the club’s members can be outside as much as possible when they are at the club house, and also to encourage children to touch, smell and experience the natural world that empowers their curiosity. After having initial meeting with Ms. Brook, the project team was able to establish a framework for program goals and different engagement strategies, that will involve the Kate’s club members, staffs, board members, volunteers and even children, which the student team hopes to achieve even during this given pandemic situation.
With the club's mission in mind, the team decided to name the project “Landscapes for Healing” and has started their research last week with a vast body of literature on the healing and therapeutic landscapes , design considerations including some successful case study examples. It seems like the clients are enthusiastic about the project and so are the students!
For more information about the Kate’ Club, check out their official website at https://katesclub.org/.
Week 2: Site Introduction
Week 2: Site Introduction
This week the Kate’s Club project team began to delve into site analysis, an essential initial step towards developing a master plan. The team established an in person site visit for the end of the week so initial research began online. Preliminary findings were worrisome, canopy cover blocked the Google Earth aerial view and while Google Earth street view providing a look at the site, we still had many questions about the site boundary. One site condition that we knew we would need to account for, from our first discussion with Debra, was the flood level. Utilizing floodway mapping and GIS mapping from the city of Brookhaven, we confirmed that the entire site is within a floodway.
While the initial site analysis was a bit worrisome, the site visit brought enthusiasm and clarity. The space is lush, expansive, and well shaded with mature canopy trees. Debra toured us around the property, informing us on the history and conditions of various elements. Our creative gears began spinning. While the site may have challenges like the flood level and building management constraints, our site visit proved that there was great potential for a successful outdoor space for Kate’s Club. Kate’s Club has already taken the initiative to re-landscape the foundational plantings along the building, create a beautiful memorial space, and add elements like pollinator plantings and colorful birdhouses. With a greater understanding of the site conditions I think as our team moves on with developing a site plan and conducting stakeholder engagement, it will be important to prioritize the program elements and spaces to concentrate design on.
Weeks 3 & 4: Flexibility, Adjustments, and Online Engagement
Weeks 3 & 4: Flexibility, Adjustments, and Online Engagement
During our first meeting, we developed a quick list of potential programming elements.
From our list of possible programming, we created a series of icons to represent types of program elements and provided instructions for our envisioned virtual charrette.
We soon found that the virtual format made for a tedious engagement process. Though we put a lot of thought into our layout, we couldn't compete with the unexpected!
After discussing it in our meeting, we decided to send this blank basemap to Kate's Club and allow them to fill it in when it worked best for them!
Following our site visit, the project team worked to prepare for our first two engagement phases with the Kate's Club steering committee. We worked to create a basemap of the site based on our measurements, wrote our agendas for the visioning process, and prepared activities to help both sides begin the process of site programming.
Though we put in numerous hours planning and refining our strategies, one thing above all became clear over the past two weeks - it is impossible to plan for the perfect community meeting! Though our results have been more or less successful, we have definitely been on our toes and adapting to our online engagement format. We found that it was more difficult than we expected to facilitate conversation and engage participants in activity when restricted to the realm of Zoom. We also found that schedules have been much more hectic during our socially-distanced times, so finding significant blocks of time to engage in traditional engagement formats has been much out of the question.
That said, what we have learned is that people are just as eager and willing to provide input in the process - it just needs to take on a different form. Our team has shifted to a much more asynchronous approach, providing visioning prompts and design activities in a more approachable form for our participants. We ended up relying more on the existing social networking links at Kate's Club to send out drawing exercises, wish poems, and 5-year vision plans to the parents, children, and volunteers via their familiar Google forms method.
We also adjusted our quick charrette with the steering committee on the fly. Our initial plan was to utilize Photoshop and a screen share to have them direct the placement of icons representing various programming elements. However, after struggling to get much feedback and fighting the limitation of the software, we came to the agreement that it would be easier to adapt our strategy so they could work on it on their own time. With a minor adjustment to the prompt, all it took was a quick email to send along the necessary materials for the exercise. We are now waiting for the results of this strategy, but overall feel like we will get much better results by allowing the members to devote more time to the process when it is convenient for them.
In short - did we follow any of the items on our meeting schedules? Probably not. Did we end our meetings with the anticipated results? Not likely. Did we put a lot of effort into design strategies that were ultimately discarded? Without a doubt. However, we did learn a valuable lesson - no matter if it's in-person or virtual, the public engagement process rarely goes as expected! With just a few minor adjustments to our perspective on the process, we were able to quickly adapt and devise a solution that worked for both Kate's Club and our project team. At the end of the day, the results will still come and we will have learned a valuable lesson in how to prepare for (or at least compete with) the unknown!
Weeks 5 to 8: Conceptual Plans: Presentation and Evaluation
Weeks 5 to 8: Conceptual Plans: Presentation and Evaluation
After the completion of the Engagement Phase II, we moved on to our next engagement phase, i.e. plan evaluation which continued for four weeks. As mentioned in the previous entry, the procedure did not always go as outlined in the agenda and that was evident in this phase too as changes were inevitable.
This phase included three parts which were:
Part I: Sharing the Conceptual Plan
Part II: Evaluating the Masterplan
Part III: Prioritizing the Elements
Based on the charette feedback from the steering committee, our design team prepared individual conceptual master plans and presented to the client through PowerPoint presentation in a storyboard format. After that, the steering committee was asked to review the plans, and similar to the previous engagement format, provide their feedback through an interactive google slides where they would move the icons around to highlight what they liked the most and the least in each plan. The examples from the engagement format and the feedback are shown in Figures 1 to 3. Along with that, they provided some notes on what stood out the most for them and what could be done better.
Though the original plan was to include a multiple-choice questions to prioritize the elements on different locations on the site, due to time limitation as well as in an effort to not overwhelm the committee further, we had to move along without it. Finally, based on the feedback and the design team’s professional knowledge, a priority list was created that will help to provide a concise plan for the team in the future.
The limitations for this engagement phase was the inability, due to the social distancing situation, on the design team's side to present the conceptual plans face-to-face to the client. The in-person interaction becomes effective because of the ability of designers to share their plans to the client and get instant feedback from them. The clients are also able to raise questions or concerns about the design and its easy to clarify those concerns in the moment. However, in our case, as we had to do that asynchronously, the three conceptual plans were overwhelming for the committee as they had go through them on their own, and there was no one to clear their doubts or explain some things clearly. This not only created gaps between the interaction, but also delayed the process significantly. And because of that, the process of getting final feedback on some of the priority elements and their location on the site has been extended to the next phase.
Figure 1. Example of a Presentation slide with a blow-up plan, explanation and reference images
Figure 2. Use of Emojis to show the Likert scale and feedback from the Steering Committee
Figure 3. Feedback on Concept 2
Figure 4. Feedback on Concept 3
Weeks 9 to 13: Digging into the Details
Weeks 9 to 13: Digging into the Details
The past few weeks have had us filled to the brim with technical details! Construction details, layout plans, planting plans, and the sort are some of the most crucial elements of the typical landscape architecture project as they are the main way that design intent is communicated to the hired contractor. However, with the Kate's Club project things have been slightly different. Since they plan to implement most of the projects via volunteer assistance, our team has had to adjust our more 'professional' thinking to a more 'Do It Yourself' design style.
Overall, we have noticed two major adaptations that we have implemented to make our details more legible and user-friendly. The first came from our discussion with the steering committee. As we were discussing the feasibility of our final combined plan and its construction, they brought up that it would be extremely helpful to divide the site into specific project areas rather than thinking of it as a whole. Since they expect to tackle the project with volunteers, having all of the details divided into easy to handle chunks was deemed to be far more helpful than the traditional site plan, details sheet, etc. This worked out quite well for us as we had already planned to divide the detailing work amongst the three of us, but in hearing this we decided to break things down even further. We were no longer creating one overall design, but instead around six individual projects (and even more mini-projects within) that would each require a unique level of detail!
The second revelation that we had came during our class discussion on the format for Engagement Phase 6 - the phase where we would be presenting our final designs. In years past, students had been able to actually install a piece of the design as the final step, but sadly COVID shot down that opportunity. Instead, our group was inspired by the step-by-step construction guides that some previous groups had created. Unlike our traditional details, these utilized more IKEA-manual graphics and images to convey the project in a simple, straight-forward manner. This paired well with what we had heard from Kate's Club, and after discussing it with them we decided to move forward towards that end. Thus, above our typical construction details, we have now been having to mentally put ourselves onto the site and think about the logical order for completing each project. This expanded into brainstorming about what types of equipment/tools would be needed, how many volunteers each project would require, how much time each individual step would take, and the amount of professional skill needed to construct some of the more difficult site elements.
As of now, we are still working through the final set of traditional construction details (I would include images, but for the most part it's been the same-old CAD plan for the past month), but we will be transitioning into the creation of the step-by-step guide very soon! The steering committee has been very excited and eager to add input into how they would like to have these made available, and found it extremely beneficial to practice thinking about how our traditional details translate to actual construction practices. By the end, we will have created 6+ different project booklets each with its own layout plan, perspectives, details, and planting plan - but most importantly an overview of the materials, tools, labor, funding, timelines, and processes that will actually make the designs come to fruition.
Weeks 14 to 17: Final Presentations and Takeaways
Weeks 14 to 17: Final Presentations and Takeaways
As our project was nearing its end, we franticly worked to wrap up our projects. Once our construction details, planting plans, and layout plans were completed from Project 5, we began our "Implementation Guides". As the pervious post discussed, our client is planning on using volunteers for implementation and so creating a step to step guide for them was truly what the part of the project we felt like they were most excited for from the very beginning. So after discussion just how the step to step implementation guide should be laid out, one project member created a booklet template so us to all use so the various project booklets are harmonious.
Each project booklet includes:
Project Overview
Plans, perspectives, and descriptions
Construction Documents
Layout and Grading Plans (if applicable)
Construction Drawings
Planting Schedules and Plans
Implementation Guides
Overall cost estimates
Supplier contacts
Materials, tools, and hardware lists
Scope and volunteer requirements
Step-by-step guides
One of the best ideas was the break our implementation guides into project phases. For example, the Woodland Walk and Labyrinth project (as seen to the right) is one project that is broken down into three project phases, cleaning and trail creation, labyrinth and site furnishings, and plantings. Phasing the projects allow them to be completed into time segments better suited for volunteer groups. Additionally, it breaks up the project costs into smaller, more feasible amounts. Per phase, an overview, material check-list, tool and equipment check-list, total cost, expected amount of time and volunteers, and step- by-step instructions are given. As our project booklets are completed, we suggest utilizing an digital upload platform like Issuu, so the booklets are all digitally available in one place for quick access. Additionally, these booklets can be printed out for the volunteers the day of an event.
With our projects completed, we held one final zoom meeting with the steering committee. We briefly summarized our work throughout the semester and then walked through one of the implementation booklets. Finally, we thanked the Kate's Club steering committee for a truly great project.
This semester was so unique for us all. Never before have we spent the entire semester working on one project, nonetheless worked directly with a client (virtually!) and taken a project all to way to step-by-step implementation. We valued the lessons we learned from our typical practice and thinking to how clients interpret our work, and further, how to design with feasible volunteer led implementation in mind. And to add another layer of appreciation, it was a rewarding project. Kate's Club has a great mission and the idea that not only were we helping the landscape look better, but we were creating spaces that hopefully will one day help a child or young adult with their healing journey.
We are so thankful for all that we learned through this project and hope that Kate's Club is able to utilize the resources we prepared for them.
Final Master Plan
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