Third-Year Landscape Architecture Students Design for Eco-Healing Near Marshall Mesa Site

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 16:45:26 +0000

Third-Year Landscape Architecture Students Design for Eco-Healing Near Marshall Mesa Site Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/04/2022 - 10:45

In the summer of 2022, a group of collaborators from the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP), Growing Up Boulder, CEDaR and ENVD began meeting about the concept of eco-healing–the ways in which connecting to nature can help communities process and heal from traumatic disaster events and create educational opportunities around climate change and natural disasters.

Growing Up Boulder conducted community engagement activities with the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) and students from Whittier Elementary school that focused on exploring emotions around climate change and the super fires of today. Within the first few weeks of the fall 2022 semester, a third-year landscape architecture studio, instructed by Teaching Assistant Professor Emily Greenwood, has expanded on the work carried over from summer.

Students began their design project with an exploration of emotion and tying that emotional connection into what is typically referred to as the initial research phase. In mid-September, representatives of the multi-agency collaboration presented at the Colorado Open Space Alliance conference on Eco-Healing with youth: Inspiring Emotional Resilience through Wildfire Interpretation and Climate Action. Third-year landscape architecture students will spend the rest of the semester designing interpretive education opportunities along the Marshall Mesa (and adjacent) trailhead that will be presented to OSMP and folded into the future designs for those trailheads.

Third-year landscape architecture students take on designing interpretive education opportunities along the Marshall Mesa (and adjacent) trailhead that will be presented to OSMP and folded into the future designs for those trailheads.

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ENVD students help create Boulder’s first-ever child-friendly city map

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 20:19:00 +0000

ENVD students help create Boulder’s first-ever child-friendly city map Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/29/2019 - 14:19

Merlyn Holmes

[BOULDER, COLORADO, April 12, 2019]— Any parent knows that traditional maps are not designed with kids in mind. But a new child-friendly city map is helping kids learn how to navigate their way around Boulder, thanks to Growing Up Boulder, a �� Boulder program that partners with Boulder Valley School District and the City of Boulder. The map, and the event to celebrate the map, are free to the community thanks to the generous support of the Boulder Library Foundation, Boulder Community Health Foundation, and the Boulder JCC.

On the morning of May 4, 2019, hundreds of young cartographers (map-makers) and the community will celebrate the map’s launch at the Boulder Jewish Community Center, 6007 Oreg Ave., 9:30 a.m. - noon. The event is full, but media is welcome to attend and interview elementary school cartographers and �� Boulder undergraduate map designers.

Map Launch Celebration

When: Saturday, May 4, 9:30 a.m. - noon.
Tickets: Free, but sold out. Media, please reserve a place by contacting Merlyn Holmes, (720-588-6592). Community members wishing to attend may join a waitlist.
Where: Boulder Jewish Community Center, 6007 Oreg Avenue, Boulder

�� the Child-Friendly Map

More than 30 groups/organizations and 700 diverse children and parents have contributed to creating Boulder’s first-ever child-friendly city map. The free, eye-catching, bilingual English and Spanish printed map will be sent home with every child attending a Boulder-located Boulder Valley School District elementary school or preschool, as well as additional private schools. A digital version of the map will also be available September 2019. The Boulder Child-Friendly City Map will reach 8,000 Boulder children and families during 2019, making it one of the most widely read and distributed pieces of city literature.

“This map is a fulfillment of my dream: to offer children and families a simple tool to locate child-friendly spaces and amenities throughout the city,” said Mara Mintzer, program director for Growing Up Boulder (GUB), a program of the Community Engagement Design and Research (CEDaR) Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“The map is meant for local and visiting families who may be unaware of Boulder’s many child-friendly locations and free resources, and for educators wanting to teach community, local history, and geography in meaningful ways. The map also highlights where our community has room to grow, by, for example, visually demonstrating the small number of breastfeeding rooms and changing tables currently available,” Mintzer said.

Boulder’s child-friendly map was designed by two undergraduate students under the direction of GUB staff, and supported by undergraduate interns, all from the Program in Environmental Design. GUB staff gathered input from six city departments, children at BVSD schools, area preschools and afterschool programs, and from parents throughout the community.

Students involved in assisting with creating the child-friendly map include:

GUB intern and map-maker, Abe Profitt, planning senior
GUB map-maker, Alex Haefling, planning senior
GUB intern and map team member, Omar de la Mora, architecture senior
GUB intern and map team member, Leandre Mills, environmental studies

Creation of the First Teen Friendly City Map is Underway

Before Boulder’s Child-Friendly City Map even hit the presses, Growing Up Boulder launched the development of a digital Teen-Friendly City Map, with graduate students in �� Boulder’s Masters of the Environment program leading the effort. Partners are being sought to support future projects. Community members and organizations may contact GUB Program Director Mara Mintzer at growingupboulder@gmail.com. Interested teachers may email GUB Education Coordinator Cathy Hill at catherine.hill@colorado.edu.

Because equity is at the foundation of GUB’s work, both the child and teen maps will be offered for free to Boulder residents and visitors in public spaces throughout Boulder. Since each costs tens of thousands of dollars to create, GUB is seeking donations at https://giving.cu.edu/fund/gub-cedar-fund. Map merchandise will be available for purchase at the recently opened Museum of Boulder.

Celebrate Growing Up Boulder’s 10th Anniversary & Retrospective

The launch of the map is a perfect way to mark the 10th anniversary of Growing Up Boulder.

For the past decade, Growing Up Boulder has partnered with BVSD, the City of Boulder and area nonprofits to lead a child and youth-friendly city initiative, getting children involved in local government decision-making and city planning. Their goal is to make Boulder an exemplary child and youth-friendly city and serve as a model for cities across the nation.

Since 2009, Growing Up Boulder has worked with more than 4,000 children and youth and 1,000 university students on 84 city projects, including:

Creating the Creekside Playground next to Boulder Public Library, a project which was featured in a recent TEDx Talk.
Transportation Master Plan
Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan
Valmont City Park
Boulder Reservoir
Resilience Plan

A retrospective exhibit documenting Growing Up Boulder’s impact over the past 10 years will be held at the Boulder Public Library August 1 - September 30, 2019.

Ways to get involved with Growing Up Boulder:

Sign up for a new tri-annual newsletter at www.growingupboulder.org
Donate funds to support the child-friendly map and the teen-friendly map projects: https://giving.cu.edu/fund/gub-cedar-fund
Partner with GUB: Email the Growing Up Boulder program at growingupboulder@gmail.com. Interested teachers wanting to partner with GUB, should email GUB Education Coordinator, Cathy Hill at catherine.hill@colorado.edu.

Related Resources

TEDx Talk: How Kids Can Help Design Cities
Website: www.growingupboulder.org

Full contact:
Merlyn Holmes
Communications and Development Lead
Growing Up Boulder
1060 18th Street, UCB 314
Community Engagement Design and Research (CEDaR) Center
University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, CO 80309
merlyn.holmes@colorado.edu
(720) 588-6592

Any parent knows that traditional maps are not designed with kids in mind. But a new child-friendly city map is helping kids learn how to navigate their way around Boulder, thanks to Growing Up Boulder, a �� Boulder program that partners with Boulder Valley School District and the City of Boulder. The map, and the event to celebrate the map, are free to the community thanks to the generous support of the Boulder Library Foundation, Boulder Community Health Foundation, and the Boulder JCC.

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