Bowman, South Carolina is a rural town about an hour northwest of Charleston. The initial 2020 census data finds that the population sits just below 800, a 19% decline from the 2010 population and a 34% decline from the population in 2000. The numbers tell the story of a small town in the south that is losing residents and families to larger cities with more amenities. In fact, Bowman is the only city in Orangeburg County that does not have a safe and functional city park.

In Fall 2021, their project proposal was selected to be a part of Katherine Melcher's Community Design Studio. Our team was quickly briefed on the project and sent off to the races to begin working alongside the community to envision the best design possible for Bowman's community park.

To read about the design process, visit the project blog here.

The Bibb County UGA Extension serves the Macon-Bibb community by providing science-based education and programming  in agriculture and the environment, family, well-being, and 4H youth. In its new home at the historic Robert S. Train Center, the Extension is looking to develop a landscape plan that will complement this mission. Students in the LAND 7050S studio were brought in to engage the Extension staff, volunteers, and community members in the design process for the site.

To read about the design process, visit the project blog here. 

Kate's Club is a non-profit in Atlanta, GA that aims to empower children who have experienced the loss of a parent or sibling through advocacy, recreational group support programs, engagement, and education. The club believes in the power of a healing community to overcome that grief. 

The collaborative effort between Kate’s Club and the LAND 7050 studio sought to achieve a healing landscape design for the club through community participation. The student design team consisted of three graduate students: Emily Whisenant, Joshua Goeden and Pranisha Karmacharya. These students, in cooordination with Kate's Club worked towards a vision of providing 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. 

To read about the design process, visit the project blog here.