About this Sacred Place
With its mission to support children and families suffering loss, and provide a safe place for them to heal and recover, Roberta’s House addresses grief as a public health preventive service. Nature Sacred will support this important mission by providing a Sacred Place for children, families, as well as staff and volunteers to find healing in nature.
This Sacred Place will be designed as a rooftop garden. It will utilize the roof’s existing expansive views of the surrounding neighborhoods and the Green Mount Cemetery while remaining a safe and secure space for people to heal in. The community engagement process at Roberta’s House, which engaged volunteers, board members, staff, interns, and maintenance personnel, a multitude of programming and design elements were identified for the roof space. As a result, the roof space will have space for group activities such as art workshops, as well as individual healing in forms like chairs that become covered pods – a direct request from a member of the Sacred Place Steering Committee for this project. Additional features include a circular portal, a water feature, and plantings, and the butterfly motif of Roberta’s House added to the paving: all forming a multifunctional space for programming, workshops, and events, offering the opportunity to meld healing through nature into the existing activities at Roberta’s House.
Design Team:
Alice Storm Jones, Nature Sacred Design Advisor, Floura Teeter
Joe Ignatius III, landscape architect, Floura Teeter
