Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Publication Date

Fall 2009

Comments

Professors: Frank Sleegers and John Taylor Teaching Assistant: Brian C. Giggey

Abstract

This work explores a service learning strategy in the context of the senior Urban Design Studio taught in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The primary goal of this project is to stimulate a conversation in the neighborhoods of the North End, to develop green design strategies, to improve services and businesses for residents and the employees of local businesses, and to foster cultural engagement and interaction in the North End that will enhance the vibrancy, resilience, and quality of life of this urban community. Making connections - Envisioning Springfield's North End proposes improved connectivity in a physical, cultural, and social sense will be key to attaining these goals and to engaging and synergizing individuals and community groups in the North End - residents, businesses, schools, churches, employers, and employees. Six sustainable learning and planning principles have emerged from this studio:

1. Input and interaction – Visioning workshops connect campus and community

2. Community-building art - Expression of place and people

3. Healthy living - Urban agriculture and education

4. Urban greenways – Abandoned railways and urban rivers and streams

5. Green infrastructure - Green streets as networks and structural framework

6. Sustainable urban form – Mixed use and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods

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