Marshall Lane Elementary School commemorated the phase one completion of its award-winning Outdoor Education Center Saturday afternoon with a ribbon-cutting ceremony during its Pumpkin Walk and Carnival.

The center offers a hands-on learning environment that inspires children to observe, explore, and experiment with science and nature, according to school officials.  

Designed by architect Hari Sripadanna and principal of Srusti Architects and a school parent, the center also celebrated a design award from the American Institute of Architects Santa Clara Valley in the small design/big impact category for creating a collaborative and innovative learning environment for students. 

Marshall Lane teachers, administrators, and parent volunteers shared the common vision of building the center.

Originally conceived as a simple garden and shade structure, the idea expanded to a broader vision of creating a learning space for students and teachers to enable lessons in life sciences, renewable energy, native plants, and protection of the environment.  

Sripadanna helped envision a concept with drawings and renderings and a means to achieve it, by creating a master plan that was broken down to achievable, smaller phases. 

The physical concepts quickly inspired other parents – Dave Benton (Garden Committee Chairperson) and Denise Garlick (center chairperson), to champion a broader project to fund and create this collaborative learning environment.

The Campbell Union School District also realized that the center would be a tremendous asset and demonstration space for the district. 

“Marshall Lane’s new Outdoor Education Center will provide valuable opportunities for all of our students to experience hands-on science experiments within nature at our own school site,” says Dr. Carrie Andrews, principal of Marshall Lane Elementary.  “Experiential learning allows students to make deeper connections with the world around them first hand. The staff at Marshall Lane is excited for the unveiling and the unlimited opportunities that the learning environment will provide for our students.” 

The school held a variety of activities at the center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony including mini pumpkin decorating, complimentary seed plantings to bring home, and an informational garden booth.

 Yamagami’s Nursery also featured a showcase garden by bringing in plants, trees, and garden decorations, as well as gave the families an option to purchase, at a discount, the plants and materials for the center.

Several school families and friends purchased most of the plants, trees, and decorative items that by the end of the event the center garden was transformed from just dirt to an abundant garden that was planted by the children.  

With phase one completed, the school now has an outdoor classroom for up to 50 students, including an organic garden, shade sail, and paved area, where they will learn hands-on about science and the environment, water conservation, organic gardening, and composting. 

The center will facilitate and support school educational curriculum (California State Content Standards) that connects science and the outdoors, such as our natural resources, water cycle, weather and seasonal patterns, plant and insect anatomy, photosynthesis and pollination.  

“What is most satisfying about the center project is that we were able to elevate a simple functional idea into a bigger concept,” Sripadanna stated.  “It is an honor that the AIASCV has recognized the vision of the center design and its supporting groups. The center will create a big impact not only for the Marshall Lane Community but it could also be a model for outdoor educational environments in the Bay Area. With the opening of the center, students at Marshall Lane will now begin their immersion in learning in a stimulating, dedicated outdoor space.”

Anne Fougeron, FAIA, Fougeron Architecture (one of the jury members) at the AIASCV Design Awards ceremony, said: “We were really appreciative of this kind of grassroots architectural projects that were brought together by the combination of the community and the activism of the architect (involved) to do something that has profound impact on the community and transform the lives of the people that use them.”

Denise Garlick, center chairperson, said, “There was a moment during the site assessment discussion, when the ideas quickly grew beyond the garden into a more life sciences focus. The center would not have been possible without the ongoing support of the Campbell Union School District and the generous donations and commitment from individuals that allowed for creativity and vision in delivering something exceptional for Marshall Lane students.”

A variety of sustainable design elements for the center slated to be completed in the next phases of the project include an organic vegetable garden, sundial, a vertical axis wind turbine, photo voltaic panels, green roof, and rain water harvesting capabilities. The center is devised to be built in four phases in accordance with funding allowances. The funds raised by the Marshall Lane PTA help support the construction of center. Grant funds, in-kind donations, corporate matches and sponsorships are also being considered to defray costs. 

To make a donation in support of the center project, please contact the Marshall Lane Elementary School PTA at OEC@MarshallLanePTA.org.

Chris Elliott investigates the spread of the sinister ash dieback disease, which is threatening thousands of the region’s trees.

IT’S deadly, and it may be heading our way. Ash dieback, which has devastated huge numbers of ash trees in Europe, has turned up in the East of England. 

The disease, which causes leaf loss and tree death, has wiped out 90 per cent of Denmark’s ash population and has now spread throughout central Europe. It first appeared in our region at nurseries and recently planted sites, such as car parks and college campuses, but has now also been spotted in the wider woodland environment, in Norfolk and Suffolk – and there are fears it will sweep through Cambridgeshire.

Yesterday, as the crisis deepened, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson imposed a ban on imports of ash into the UK, in a bid to stop the disease spreading.  Ash trees make up about 30 per cent of Britain’s wooded landscape and are found in parks as well as in the countryside – and there is concern that they are facing the same fate as the elm, which was devastated by Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.

Cambridgeshire County Council experts are on the lookout for any cases of the outbreak on the county’s extensive agricultural estate, but a spokesman said none had been reported yet. The estate is the biggest in England and Wales, stretching to 35,000 acres (13,500 hectares), with 250 farm tenants.

In Cambridge, the city council’s “tree team” is also on full alert.

Arboricultural officer Kenny McGregor said: “This is a very serious pathogen, just as serious as Dutch elm disease, and we’re very worried that it might turn up in the city. When Dutch elm struck us years ago, streets like Brooklands Avenue, which were lined with elms, lost them all.

“All we can do at the moment is to keep our eyes peeled, but even if the disease appears, we don’t really know yet how best to deal with it.

“East Anglia as a whole has a lot of ash trees, and we have quite a few in Cambridge, such as at Cherry Hinton Hall and Jesus Green.

“If people spot any trees they believe might be infected, they can contact the tree team at the council and we’ll investigate.”

As well as the disastrous impact on the green environment the disease may have, it threatens local wildlife too.

Chris Panter, of the University of East Anglia, said that if ash trees suffer large-scale decline, 60 of the country’s rarest insect species could be at risk of being lost.

He said: “As well as 80 common insects, at least 60 of the rarest insect species in the UK have an association with ash trees – these are mostly rare beetles and flies.

“Ash is also important for many lichens and mosses that grow in its bark, and its seeds are an important food for wood mice.”

Another organisation on standby for any signs of the blight is Cambridge Past Present Future, the environmental charity with stewardship of the ancient woodland at Wandlebury, and at Coton Countryside Reserve.

Carolin Gohler, Cambridge PPF’s chief executive, said: “This is a very concerning situation. We have spoken to the regional headquarters of the Forestry Commission, which is surveying areas around the region, and we’re keeping a close eye on the trees at our green spaces.

“Ash comprises up to 15 per cent of our tree stock at both Coton and Wandlebury. If anyone visiting our sites spots anything unusual, we’d be grateful if they could report it to our team.”

Cambridge’s Botanic Garden also has ash trees. Curator Tim Upson said: “We have about 15 or so species from the US and Asia as well as our native ash. I am not sure if all species of ash are susceptible – but we would start from the premise that they are.

“The potential impact is of course very serious. Ash are important street trees in places, and in parks, but it’s their relatively widespread nature in the wider environment which is most serious.

“There is no cure at the moment, apart from controlling imports, and where there are outbreaks, removal of trees to reduce spread is only realistic on a small scale.”

chris.elliott@cambridge-news.co.uk

“EPCOT will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are emerging from the forefront of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed. It will always be showcasing and testing and demonstrating new materials and new systems” – Walt Disney

On October 1, Epcot celebrated its 30th Anniversary and Epcot fans are lusting for more and more information about how it came to be. Let’s take a look at an early influence of Walt’s ideas for E.P.C.O.T.  Earlier this year on WEDWay Radio we did a five part series chronicling the history of Epcot since Walt Disney’s announcement during the waning weeks of his own life. In that exciting film, he unveiled the Florida Project and described the project’s purpose. We get a glimpse into what the Walt Disney Company was planning and likely would have implemented had Mr. Disney not suddenly passed away.

Photo Copyright The Walt Disney Co.

In the film, Walt discusses the need for solutions to the problems of postwar America.  One of the problems he saw plaguing society was the need for improvement and redesign of our cities

Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City

One of Walt’s influences regarding civic design was an Englishman named Ebenezer Howard.  Howard worked for the British government.  He had actually spent time in the United States during his youth and, in 1902, he would write one of the more important books for 19th century futurists, Garden Cities of To-Morrow.

Within the book, Howard described a new futuristic design for cities with a goal of combining the comforts of both rural and urban areas.  The entire town was to occupy a 6,000 acre ring with 1,000 acres devoted to the Garden City.

At the Center of Garden City was to be an actual garden and a public park surrounded by the buildings of the city, including: a theater; a library; a museum; city hall; and concert hall.  Radiating from the center were to be six boulevards that would divide the city into six wards.  Each of the boulevards would have inspiring names like Newton Boulevard and Columbus Boulevard.

Photo Cornell University

Over the Garden Center, a large glass structure called the Crystal Palace would protect citizens from the elements while they enjoyed the garden and public park.  This was not an original idea; glass covered structures would be seen throughout the 20th century.  Magazines like Popular Science published sketches of protective glass shelter.

Photo Copyright Popular Science

Low density housing, parks and schools made up the second ring.  Separating the six wards were the intersecting six boulevards, but running through the center of each ward (essentially making a separate ring) Howard suggested a wide street known as Grand Avenue.  It would be a whopping 420 feet wide, allowing for islands to be built within the street itself if necessary.

Photo Cornell University

Grand Avenue would be lined with prominent houses on the inner side, and the outer edge would mark the beginning of the Industrial area, essentially turning the street into a buffer between residential areas and industrial areas.  The outer edge of Garden City’s circular design would have factory’s, larger industrial buildings, timber yards and dairy farms.  All of the machinery was to be run by electricity.

Howard’s ideas were forward thinking.  In the coming decades, England would see population eradication in World War I and physical devastation in World War II. Innovative designs for rebuilding urban cores, incorporating population centers, as well as industrial complexes, would be key to the rebuilding efforts after both wars.

Walt Disney would introduce E.P.C.O.T. in the 1960’s with his own design based loosely on Howard’s idea of combining the populace with industry in a way that satisfied the needs of both.

Comparing the Garden City to E.P.C.O.T.

Like Howard’s design, Progress City would essentially be a ring radiating from a city center.  E.P.C.O.T.’s central city would be climate controlled with a glass roof much like the Crystal Palace of the Garden City.  In Howard’s design, boulevards would lead visitors from the central hub of Garden City. Automobiles were likely to be the big draw on the boulevards (exciting and new in 1902).  The Disney design was over sixty years after Howard’s and in Walt’s mind, automobiles were no longer the grand mode of transportation that they were in Howard’s day, instead they clogged traffic lanes and restrained society rather than liberating it.  So, to create a similar solution, E.P.C.O.T. was to be built with clean electric WEDWay Peoplemovers and monorails.

Both Mr. Howard’s and Walt Disney’s designs for the City of Tomorrow were attempts to solve problems related to the declining state of cities in England and the United States.

In a future post I’ll look at another origin to the concept related to Walt Disney’s original idea for E.P.C.O.T.

Do you think a community where the needs were matched for both industry and the citizens could exist today? Do you think Walt would have designed EPCOT to look like the Garden City?

The Garden City of To-Morrow was one of the subjects we discussed on episode 114 of WEDWay Radio. We invite you to listen along.

A Press Release from Newark Unified School District:

NEWARK – Students, teachers and staff did a double take when they arrived at the main entrance to Newark Memorial High last week.

Gone were a few scraggly bushes, and in their place was a newly landscaped rock garden commemorating the students who died while enrolled in the school.

“Thanks to Cargill, garden designer Tina Delucchi and the efforts of our maintenance staff, we now have a quiet and beautiful place where we remember those we have lost,” said Supt. Dave Marken, who participated in a Saturday morning volunteer effort to renovate and re-plant three garden areas on the campus.

Not only was a new student memorial garden created at the school entrance but a nearby employee memorial was re-planted, while inside the school gates, a large informal walkway at the entrance surrounding the career (counseling) center was re-landscaped.

“Our Cargill Cares team was glad for this opportunity to make an improvement at Newark Memorial,” said Bret Schuttpelz, Cargill refinery manager. “We care about Newark students and their learning environment. We believe students value their high school experience more if the setting reflects good community values. Improving the memorial garden was one way to help.”

On Oct. 20, seven members of the Cargill Cares team — a committee of employees who volunteer at four or more community projects each year — gathered at the school to work. They were met by Tonya Connolly, maintenance supervisor for the District and Delucchi. For three hours, together they raked weeded, picked up trash, spread new gravel pathways, and planted flowers and shrubs.

When the job was done, more than 2,000 square feet adjoining the library/counseling center was re-landscaped.

“We give all the credit to the spirit that makes great communities,” said Marken. “Our maintenance staff pitched in on overtime — and did all the heavy lifting (literally).  Under Ms. Connolly’s direction, they moved the memorial rocks and some very large and heavy concrete planters.  We couldn’t have done this job without them.

“We also are deeply indebted to Tina Delucchi Landscape and Garden Design of Fremont.  She and her staff did a fabulous job — on a pro bono basis — and arranged a nice discount from Regan Nursery for the materials.  But, of course, most of the credit goes to Cargill which initiated the project, purchased the materials and supplied most of the volunteer labor.

“This was a truly successful project,” said Delucchi.  “We had a lot of constraints:  limited hours to prepare the site and do the plantings, a limited budget, and plants and walkways that could tolerate not only drought and wind – but also teenagers! 

“It all worked together, I think because of the generosity of spirit that everyone shared.  It was truly a joy.”

Editor’s note: This report was lightly edited for AP Style.

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By Carol Stocker
Landscape architects and historians from around the country converged on the Boston Athenaeum Saturday night to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Library of American Landscape History, the foremost publisher in the genre, which is headquartered in Amherst. The non-profit has published a cannon of 26 books on the history of landscape design in this country, working with the University of Massachusetts Press. They include the award winning “A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era,” by Robin Karson, LALH’s founder and executive director, who briefly addressed the gathering.

Also in attendance were Iris Gestram, executive director of the National Association for Olmsted Parks in Washington, director Mark Zelonis of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Bob Cook, former director of the Arnold Arboretum, Meg Winslow, archivist for the Mount Auburn Cemetery, and Lee Farrow Cook of the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic National Park Service site, named Fairsted.

Nancy Turner, the LALH’s founding president, was honored. “I met Robin when she came to write about my Fletcher Steele garden,” recalled Turner in an interview. The famous Boston landscape designer had had an office on Louisburg Square, but had retired to Pittsford, N.Y., near her estate, and created his last garden there for her. Karson documented it in her great book, “Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect.” Written shortly after Steele’s death in 1971, the book documented many of his gardens before they were lost. Steele gardens were generally high maintenance and seldom survived their owners, “but Mabel Choate preserved her Naumkeag,” said Turner. She referred to the The Trustees of Reservations’ Steele garden in Stockbridge, famed for its series of white Art Deco staircases and waterfalls framed by birch trees..

Turner now lives in Connecticut. Does her own Pittsford garden still exist? “I don’t know. I never went back to look. There has been a tremendous increase in the cost of maintenance.” She smiled. “Gardens are like sand castles. It survives in Robin’s book,” she said as she flipped though the book’s pages, which featured photos of her well planted granite staircase, orchard, and a series of terraces that led to a round reflecting pool. “It’s very quiet, a placid place that reflected the final year of Fletcher Steele’s life.”

It was after completing this survey of Steele’s rapidly vanishing gardens that Karson decided there needed to be an organization that published books on American historical landscapes. She was able to start one with Turner’s support, and has kept it going for 20 years, during which she has assembled the most important authors of books on landscape architecture in this country.

New books include “Community by Design; The Olmsted Firm and the Planning of Brookline,” by Elisabeth Hope Cushing, Roger G. Reed and Boston University professor Keith N. Morgan, who was at the party. After designing Central Park, Olmsted deserted New York for Brookline, which had proudly anointed itself “the richest town in the world.” Little has been previously published on the importance of Brookline as a laboratory and model for the Olmsted firm’s work. This book will detail how his son and namesake saw the town as a grounds for experimenting in the new profession of city planning.

It will be followed next year by a study of another important locally based designer. “Arthur A. Shurcliff and the Making of the Colonial Williamsburg Landscape,” by Elizabeth Hope Cushing, will spotlight this under-appreciated force in the Colonial Revival house and garden movement. His projects included aspects of the Charles River Esplanade, the Franklin Park Zoo, and, at the end of his life, the iconic gardens at Colonial Williamsburg.

Next year will also see the LAHL’s publication of “The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System,” by Francis R. Kowsky, cq writing about Buffalo, N.Y. “We try to focus the study on individual places,” explained Karson. It will be the first in a series edited by Ethan Carr called “Designing the American Park.” Another new series will deal with environmental design.

Interest in the history of American landscape architecture has blossomed in the last three decades, said Carr at the gathering. He linked it to the resurgence of interest in New York’s Central Park and it’s history. That park, which sunk to an all-time low in the 1970’s, is now in the best shape of its history, thanks in part to LALH board member Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, the founder of the powerful Central Park Conservancy.

Boston’s Emerald Necklace, another Olmsted masterpiece, has also enjoyed rejuvenation and scholarly attention. The Frederick Law Olmsted Papers Project will soon publish Volume Eight of Olmsted Sr’s letters, dealing with the 1880’s when the Emerald Necklace was created, said Carr, who is the editor.

The U. Mass professor is also the editor of one of LALH’s prizewinning books, “Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma.” And what is the dilemma? “Too little money, too many visitors,” said Carr succinctly. “And too many cars.”