schoolyard co-design

​This interdisciplinary collaboration between landscape architecture and planning professionals saw the team earn 1st place in the EPA RainWorks Challenge. The team focused on green infrastructure improvements for The Village School in Eugene, aligning student feedback with local and state policy initiatives, and addressing long-term design priorities in the 2020 Village School Master Plan.

As the narrative lead, I facilitated discussion on the design and engagement approach, provided context to policy applicability, and developed the implementation, maintenance, and funding feasibility for the selected green infrastructure features. 

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Centering student desires

The schoolyard at the Village School, where students play and learn, faces drainage issues from surrounding runoff.  Our team hosted a design workshop for 35 students in a 5th grade class where students drew ideas they wanted to see incorporated in the schoolyard.

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Aligning goals with design elements

Regional, state, and local planning initiatives include actions and guidance for climate change resiliency, preservation of water and land resource quality, and stormwater management. The Village School had also developed a master plan in 2020 that featured a number of stormwater management objectives. These goals, alongside analyzed student feedback, were used to support design element selection and outline feature function.

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Function & Maintenance

Site infiltration performance was analyzed to quantify water catchment, which supported implementation phasing, maintenance schedule, and financial investment justification and phasing. The maintenance plan was developed using Eugene Operation and Maintenance Standards and forestation ecological practices of the Miyawaki method, endorsed by the U.S. Forest Service.  ​

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EPA 2023 Campus RainWorks Challenge Results

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