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Community Design Session
Stones, play dough, pencils, candy frogs and worms…
The Ithaca Children’s Garden Design Day on November 1, 2001 invited community members to use these tools and their imagination to generate ideas and designs for the Ithaca Children’s Garden proposed site at Cass Park.
The goal of the design session was to capture the community’s best ideas for elements that are important to the success of the garden.
The Ithaca Children’s Garden sought to bring together the many different skills, insights, and ideas of the participants. Some participants were savvy about gardening, while others were intimate with what kids love, or about what people want to see in a public garden setting. Still others were community members with thoughts about how this wonderful effort relates to the community at large.
The morning began with inspirational images from Ithaca Children’s Garden programs and children’s gardens throughout the country. Using "journey" as a metaphor, participants were guided back through childhood. Visions of sanctuaries and experiences illustrated the many small journeys that make up the larger journey of life.
Relaxed and inspired with open and creative minds, small groups set to work on various themes such as, elements of the garden, horticulture and gardening, education, and ages and stages. Maps of the Cass Park site layered with tracing paper served as the base for creative explosions. Using pencils and props, groups brainstormed ideas and transformed blank maps into engaging landscapes.
The expertise of parents, artists, teachers, gardeners, and community leaders meshed into incredible designs. Sharing designs with the larger group revealed hiding places and tall places, water, earth sculptures covered in plants, specific habitats and structures, and much more.
All ideas and designs generated during the design day along with those of Ithaca Children’s Garden visionaries and children in the community were combined to create the conceptual design for the Ithaca Children’s Garden. The creative process of designing the Ithaca Children’s Garden is ongoing and community members are welcome to share their ideas.
Here are some of the ideas generated at the Community Design Session:
Labyrinth * Hideout * Lookout * Treehouses * Arbors * Turtle * Amphitheater * Wheat Field * Music * Insect Climbing Structures * Crops of NY State * Bunny Statue of Liberty * Ornamental Grasses * Water * Ditch * Wetland * Buterfly-Caterpillar Garden * Toddler-Infant Area * Forest * Art * Mural Area * Giant Garden * Digging Area * Maze * Locust Fencing * Greenhouse * Orchard * Espalier * Sand * Sensory * Spiral Waterfall * Willows * Surprise * Bird Nests * Sculpture * Gourds * Botany * Lighthouse * Discovery Area * Storybook Garden * Sundial
615 Willow Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14850-3555. 607 272 2292, fax: 607 272 7088