This summer, Urban Habitat Chicago, helped us solicit and evaluate proposals for a master plan from five architecture and engineering firms. We did a lot of site visits to look at their work and chose Wolff Landscape Architecture. They've done great work around Chicago and Illinois including:
· renovations of historically significant landscapes;
· creation of native habitats and sustainable landscapes; and
· also designs for schools, playgrounds and athletic fields---i.e. a great combination of the sorts of things we want to incorporate into Goethe's renovated schoolyard.
After several meetings and a site visit tour with Wolff in the fall, which included:
· Indian Boundary Park,
· Waters' schoolyard,
· the Children's Garden at Soldier Field, and
· the schoolyard at City Garden Early Childhood Center in Pilsen;
Wolff developed preliminary site plans for the space. You can view them online here. These plans are not set in stone, but are intended to allow us to consider some of the many alternatives (and tradeoffs) for this multipurpose space. This stage of planning is mostly for deciding the proportions of the space allotted to each area/function (field, paved open area for assembly/basketball, play space, garden, outdoor classroom, running track), not for determining specific details.
We submitted an application for an Illinois Green Infrastructure Grant from the IL EPA potentially worth several hundred thousand dollars thanks to Rebecca Anderson, a parent member of our schoolyard team, who's been putting countless hours in to get this grant application done.
Although the focus now is on building the physical space, we are also focused on building community support and partnerships that will make the project successful. If you'd like to join Team Schoolyard and have a more active role in the process (grantwriting, establishing and working with community partners, eventually building components of the schoolyard, etc.), please let Cassie know (Cassie.cresswell@gmail.com) We have a great group, but more help is needed, and there are many opportunities and ways in which you can contribute.
If you want to refresh your memory of the project, here's a repository of the information we've assembled so far. If you are on Facebook, please request to join the Goethe Schoolyard Working Group where there's lots of ongoing sharing of information and ideas. If you have comments or questions about the designs, share them via email, in person, on the FOGS yahoo listserv or on the Facebook group.
