From left, Cornell junior Fred Pape, Kelley School students Colleen Stevens and Lydia Garofalo, and junior Betsy Melrose look over a model of the New York State Courtyard Map Garden the students in Landscape Architecture 302 presented to the school May 6. Sheryl Sinkow/University Photography
Four small teams of Cornell landscape architecture students began the spring semester in January with nothing more than blank paper and rough ideas about creating children's paradises. Last week the 18 students presented their plans, developed in consultation with children, to turn three dreary upstate New York school yard areas and a barren plot of land in Ithaca into innovative, colorful children's gardens and landscapes for learning and play.
"It was a project of very real people, very real concerns -- and the students took their visions and turned them into real plans," said Assistant Professor Paula Horrigan, who teaches the course Landscape Architecture 302 that hatched the projects. The Cornell Landscape Architecture Program is jointly sponsored by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.
The project sites and Cornell student plans are:
"The children were my favorite part of the process," said Cornell junior Kristin Garcia. "They have fresh, new ideas. They were enthused about it every day. They really have great vision."
The remaining drawback to transforming the plans into reality is money. The Dryden project, for example, will cost about $25,000, and the school is attempting to raise the funds. An Ithaca grass-roots group has received $50,000 in start-up money for the garden, but the project is expected to cost about $2 million. The Cornell Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects has donated $500 for each of the school projects.
Each of the Cornell student teams first visited the schools involved and polled children on what they preferred. At the Kelley School, located east of Palmyra, the courtyard was not being used, even though it had grass and trees. Fourth-grade geography teachers wanted a huge teaching map, so the Cornell students developed a blueprint for a map of New York state that would fill almost the entire courtyard. The Adirondack and Catskill ranges, for example, would be represented by play mounds with greenery. The large map would not only feature the state's topographic landmarks but also would allow space for teaching .
At the Caroline School, the students and faculty agreed that the playground equipment was outdated. The students had an idea: How about a roller coaster? Caroline fifth-grade teacher Meggin Rose thought the idea was impossible, "but the Cornell students translated that idea into a real plan. They really waved a magic wand," she said.
"One of the things we had to do was make the impossible happen," said Jenn Sitts, a Cornell junior in landscape architecture.
One of the more prominent features of Caroline's Planet Playscape would be the twisting, meandering boardwalk, simulating the feeling of a roller coaster -- perfect for strolls or jogging the imagination.
"This project showed the children that you don't need high tech to have a fun play area, and you don't need a lot of money," said Kathleen Downs, a pre-kindergarten teacher at the Caroline School. "But, you do need a lot of energy."
Nothing is more dreary than an asphalt playground, and that is what the Dryden school has in its courtyard, surrounded by walls on three sides. Working with the children and teachers, the Cornell students developed plans to remove the blacktop and replace it with a Living Courtyard, with running brooks, grassy knolls and a bird sanctuary.
The student team asked Dryden third-graders for their ideas, and they requested the courtyard to be turned into a learning place.
"They mixed all of our ideas together and got [the plans for] the Living Courtyard," said Emily, a Dryden third grader. Her favorite part of the development: "The birdhouse village, but you'll have to be very quiet if you go through so you don't scare the birds."
The most ambitious project in terms of dollars -- and it is still a proposal -- would be the children's garden island, with a moat and docks, adjacent to the Ithaca Farmer's Market. The landscape architecture students drew blueprints for the project, which it is hoped will be built by 2002 on the two-acre parcel on the shore of Cayuga Lake.
In the center of the island, a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome greenhouse would replace the present storage sheds owned by the state Department of Transportation.
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