Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
Volunteers Want to Help Healing with Garden Overlook
“With freshly poured concrete, two-by-fours and hammers, Keith Tidball wanted to help to build healing at Cunningham Park. The Cornell University professor was on hand Saturday for a workday for the construction of the Butterfly Garden and Overlook in the northeast corner of the park. Members of the Hammons School of Architecture at Drury University, Joplin Parks and Recreation and scores of volunteers showed up Friday and Saturday to help with the work. A multidisciplinary research and design team proposed the “Landscapes of Resilience” project to study the role of open spaces in recovery. Tidball hopes that the project, when completed, will help people affected by the 2011 tornado recover from their grief.”
Community Gardens Encourage Capital Growth
“The opportunity for a community garden is available to all constituents in the River Valley Extension District who have self-motivation and community partnership. Whether gardener or partner, each role encourages capital growth within the seven areas of the community capital framework: built, natural, social, political, cultural, human and financial…Natural capital, a resource occurring within nature, grows from the seeds and plants purchased by individual gardeners. During routine garden maintenance, social capital blooms when gardeners meet each other. Conversations occur that schedule efficient watering times and synchronize weeding efforts. People develop relationships that provide the glue communities use to stick together. The relationships developed from gardening effects cultural capital.”
Need a Boost of Optimism and Self-control? Try a Nature Walk
“According to a new study, spending time in a natural as opposed to a “man-made” environment can boost our optimism by up to a sixth. Want to feel a bit more optimistic about the future? Try taking a nature walk this weekend. According to a new study, spending time in a natural as opposed to a “man-made” environment can boost our optimism by up to a sixth. Being in an all-natural landscape has a similar effect on our sense of self-control, the study also found.”
The Javits Center’s New Green Roof is Second Largest in the Country
“Now sporting the largest green roof in the city, the five-block-long convention center on the West Side has become the Jolly Green Javits. At nearly 7 acres, it’s the second-largest such space at any building in the country, behind a spread at a Ford factory outside Detroit. It would take six lawns the size of Bryant Park to cover the same space. An increasingly popular feature in new, sustainable buildings, it helps absorb rainwater and insulate the building. Energy costs are expected to fall by 26%. The green roof is the crowning achievement of the $465 million renovation of the 27-year-old convention center, paid for by a surcharge on hotel rooms.”
