News
CoreNet and USGBC's Green Thumbs; Top 100: Paine/Wetzel
August 4, 2009
| After two years of digging, planting, and building, the New Horizons Garden (425 S. Central Park, East Garfield Park), a labor of love for CoreNet and USGBC, celebrated its grand opening on Saturday. |
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| The real estate orgs teamed with high school students, former inmates, and church members to transform the space, which belongs to Bethany Advocate Hospital, into a sustainable garden; it includes a water cistern to gather rain and a permeable paved path. Thankfully the cistern wasn't thrust into action just yet: threatening weather held off, so the volunteers could bring new life to an old community garden. |
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| The design was determined though a contest in '06; Shed Studio's Rashmi Ramaswany and Mike Newman helped implement it. (Rashmi's daughter spent a lot of Saturdays helping, too!) They raised the enclosed garden plots off the ground, so elderly gardeners won't have to reach down as far. The hexagon shape allows more gardeners to fit while still reaching the center of their plot. |
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| The Alter Group's Renata Pasmanik, OKW Architects' Megen Briars, independent architect Cole Gagnon, and Sharon Krohn Executive Search's Sharon Krohn worked hard getting the garden ready. A sitting wall is one of the few remaining additions. Sharon said she enjoyed working with community members, who are really taking pride in their new plots. |
