Credits |
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Friends of Smart Growth & Sustainable Communities wish to thank the many businesses, organizations, and volunteers that have contributed to the Sustainable Schoolyards demonstration display and website. PROJECT TEAM Project Coordinator Exhibit Design and Eco-Schoolyard Conceptual Framework Bay Tree Design, inc. is a women-owned landscape architecture and planning firm in Berkeley, CA. Our work seeks to create beautiful, functional spaces that reflect ecological design principles, green building practices, and edible and native planting palettes. Our Principals include environmental planner Sharon Danks, landscape architect Lisa Howard, and horticulturalist Arden Bucklin-Sporer. We are currently working with schools in the San Francisco Bay Area to help transform their asphalt-covered school grounds into vibrant, multi-faceted environments for ecological learning and play. Bay Tree Design, inc. designed the Sustainable Schoolyard exhibit and developed its conceptual framework and site program, including the layout, integrated ecological systems, curriculum connections, preliminary architectural concepts, and preliminary plant palette. Bay Tree Design, inc. worked with students at two schools in the San Francisco Bay Area to produce the sunflower cutouts and birdhouses that are included in the exhibit, and participated in the exhibit’s installation. Sponsoring Organizations / Exhibit Partners Supporting Design, Construction, & Planting Team School Building, Toolshed, and Playhouse Design and Construction Primary Exhibit Builders Outdoor Classroom Shade Structure and Dragon Drum’s “Throne” Local Plant Selection and Installation Susan Boyd, CONCERN, Inc. Additional Construction & Planting Volunteers PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS Birdhouses The birdhouses used in this exhibit were designed and constructed by a kindergarten/1st grade class at Peralta Elementary School in Oakland, CA. The process to create these boxes included two workshops. At the first workshop the kids were told about Barn Owls and Chickadees, including their habits, sizes, and how they sound. Next they watched images from a chickadee nest box and barn owl box on web cams. Finally, they each decided what bird they wanted to make a nest box for, and designed the façade of the house in teams of four. A parent volunteer took their drawings and built the houses. At the second workshop the kids painted the boxes. One chickadee house is painted with a rainbow to “be pretty,” while one of the barn owl boxes is painted brown to “look natural to attract the owls.” The children are excited that the birdhouses are going all the way to Washington, DC, and are also excited to get them back in their own schoolyard later. See the Photo Gallery for images from this project. Sunflower Cutouts on the Fences The sunflowers in this exhibit were designed by a kindergarten class at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Berkeley, CA. The class was studying sunflowers this spring, and made these cutouts as part of their lesson about plant growth. The children first drew sunflowers on paper, and then several parents from the school used these paper patterns to make wooden cut outs. The paper sunflower cutouts are now hanging up in their classroom windows. The class is very excited that their project is going to Washington, DC for the One Planet—Ours! Exhibit. They are also looking forward to installing the sunflowers in their own schoolyard when they return in the fall, after the exhibit is over. See the Photo Gallery for images from this project.
Bike Rack Child Cutouts Dragon Drum with Black-Eyed Susan Flowers Green Roof Mosaics for Wooden Bench Plant Materials Pond Rain Barrel Rain Chain Salvaged Wood Solar Pond Pump System Wooden Bench
Webmaster Photos
All the volunteers who so generously gave time, ideas and support throughout the project. All the existing sustainable schoolyard projects that inspired this exhibit, including the beautiful schoolyard at Peralta Elementary School in Oakland, CA, whose sunflower fence, designed by artist Lauren Elder, appears on the home page for this website and inspired the wooden sunflowers in our exhibit.
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