Marian House is a holistic, healing community for women and their children who are in need of housing and support services. They provide a safe, sober, and loving environment that challenges women to respect and love themselves, confront emotional and socioeconomic barriers, and transition to stable and independent lives. Marian House values the innate dignity of each human being, and foster a culture of respect and understanding of the human condition.
Marian House’s first building is already the location of a Sacred Place, and they were interested in adding a second Sacred Place to their partnership with Nature Sacred. This Sacred Place was in a second location, Marian House Independence Place, which is an independent living residence for the women and children they serve. The former school building is now 22 units of permanent supportive housing complete with community spaces, a lobby, and staff offices. At this location, we identified three currently underutilized spots that could be activated into an integrated network of intentional green spaces: a courtyard, a small patio area, and a tot lot. The Geckle Memorial Garden – the courtyard – was a previously designed space that had since experienced significant underground issues that caused it to need revisiting, and was the first priority out of the three.
Through an engagement process that included the staff, women, and children of Marian House, we identified that the space needed to be one where women could seek respite, and where children would feel welcome without it becoming a dedicated play space. The final design includes stadium seating that builds on the existing porch to increase the amount of people that can use the space at one time, and offer flexibility in how the seating is used. A crescent-shaped brick pad seats the Nature Sacred bench, while another square of bricks, which were engraved and reused from the previous iteration of the site, is located along the entry. Clematis trails up a wooden archway that forms the gateway to the site – a striking visual that safely encloses the space while remaining welcoming. And off to one side, a little stepping stone loop offers sensory delights for kids, with a bright blue slide extending from the porch as the loop’s culmination. String lights zigzag their way overhead, adding warmth and cheeriness to the space.
Design Team:
Colleen Vacelet, InTreegue Design
Rachel McNamara, InTreegue Design
Contractor:
Live Green Landscape Associates, LLC
