Community Participation & Design ProjectsPatsy Eubanks Owens

Knights Landing Community Park 1Community Goal Setting & PlanningPark Master PlanPlayground DesignFamily Resource CenterCommunity Garden

White Rock Community Park 4

Cesar Chavez Elementary School Murals 6California School MemoriesSunrise & Sunset

N Street Co-Housing Community Space 7

Grant High School Landscape Master Plan 9

Knights Landing Community ParkEvolution of a community gathering place

Knights Landing Community Park

This project is actually five projects thatProfessor Owens conducted between1999 and 2005. This project illustratesthe importance and power of buildinglong-lasting partnerships withcommunities. The efforts in KnightsLanding, a small rural community,began with a large-scale communitygoal setting process. School children,senior citizens and others participatedin identifying the issues in theircommunity that they wanted to address.Owens and UC Davis studentsdeveloped photographic surveys,participated in community walks andfacilitated community meetings.

The need for a park master plan wasidentified in this process. Communitymembers wanted to reclaim a largeparcel of land that was centrally locatedand adjacent to the elementary schoolfor community use. Local schoolchildren had already collected 60,000pennies for a new playground.Professor Owens led design workshopsat the school as well as at othercommunity events. The resulting plan,“Gather at the River,” seeks to make aplace for the white and Latinocommunity members and the youngerand older residents to come together.

The Site

Cinco de mayoCommunity Celebration

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school workshops

Knights Landing Community ParkEvolution of a community gathering place

The “Gather at the River” master planrepresented a vision for the park thatwould be used to make decisions andobtain funding for the actualconstruction of its elements. Thechildren’s playground was the firstpriority. Professor Owens and MarliesNagl, a senior in the landscapearchitecture program and one of themaster plan designers, wereresponsible for this design effort. Aftersite visits to other playgrounds anddiscussing what they like to do, it wasclear that the children wanted a “storebought” playground and that they didn’twant their parents to construct theplayground. They wanted modernequipment with a space-age feel.

Final planreview

The new playground

Playground tours

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Knights Landing Community ParkEvolution of a community gathering place

The next phase of park implementationrevolved around a new FamilyResource Center - a place whereresidents could see a dentist, receivejob training or other community servicesnot currently available. Owens andthree independent study studentshelped to site the new building, anddesign the surrounding circulation andlandscape.Community members helped withconstructing walkways, an entry seatwall and the irrigation system, as wellas planting native and drought-resistantvegetation. Student Matt Straderoversaw the construction whileclassmate Kathleen Coleman guidedelementary students in making tilemosaics for the seat wall.

Two years later a public official helpingthe community received funding for acommunity garden to be located in thepark. The master plan had not includeda community garden because residentshad said they were not interested in onesince many of them work in agriculture.Since funding had already beenobtained, Professor Owens sought toinclude the community in determiningwhere this new garden should belocated, who was interested inparticipating and what it should looklike. This process eventually revealedthat indeed there was not the supportneeded to make a community gardensuccessful.

construction day

community garden planning

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White Rock Community ParkCommunity participation & Collaboration

existing conditions

site analysis

Community surveys

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White Rock Community Park

A $2.5 million state grant funded thiscollaborative park planning processbetween the Cordova Parks &Recreation District, the design firm -Moore, Iacafano & Goltsman, Kinneyand Cordova high school students, andUC Davis landscape architecturestudents. The 12-acre White Rock Parkwas in serious disrepair, suffered frommisuse and no longer met the needs ofnearby residents.

Professor Owens and undergraduatelandscape architecture students soughtto involve the culturally-diversecommunity in the master planningprocess. Working closely with highschool students, the team documentedthe existing conditions of the park andobtained community opinions. Owensand her students taught the teenagedteam members introductory siteanalysis, mapping, communityassessment, design generation andpublic presentation skills.

White Rock Community Park

In addition to gaining valuableinformation, this working relationshipoffered the local youth exposure to apotential career opportunity. Workingalongside the professional consultantsprovided the UC Davis students with avaluable hands-on learningexperience.

This project presented many valuablelessons for all those involved andincluded:

• Youth partners are an excellent way toopen the door into a community. Theyhave valuable information to shareand they can readily obtain theopinions of other community residents(especially those that may be unwillingto share with outside consultants.

• University students provide excellentrole models and mentors to youth andthey typically have fewerpreconceptions regarding parkproblems than professionalconsultants.

• Open and frequent lines ofcommunication are needed betweenall the players in collaborative projects.

Community participation & Collaboration

Community Fair

presentation practice

survey analysis

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Cesar Chavez Elementary School Murals

Cesar Chavez Elementary SchoolMurals

These two mural projects wereconducted by Professor Owens in 2005and 2008 with the sixth grade classesat Cesar Chavez Elementary School.The intent of this project was for thestudents to leave behind an artisticexpression of their time at the schooland to beautify the school grounds. Theprojects included guided workshops toidentify design concepts and developthe mural content. Several alternativeswere developed by the students foreach of the murals and the selecteddesign was chosen by class vote.

With the assistance and instruction ofOwens, the students also painted themural. Students were provided withsketches and given instruction onvarious painting techniques. TheCalifornia School Memories muralemerged from the students’ desire torepresent things they had learned aboutCalifornia and places they had visitedwhile in elementary school. TheSunrise-Sunset mural represents theend of their elementary education andthe move to junior high.

Class Memories on Display

background preparation

selecting a design

Work Day

Work Day

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N Street Co-Housing Community Space

N Street Co-Housing CommunitySpace

Residents wanted a common outdoorspace that reflected their diverseinterests and desires. The communityhas evolved from a typical city blockwith individually- owned private lots andfences to shared gardens, gatheringareas and a common dining house.

Professor Owens and students in herdesign studio worked with communitymembers to understand the issuesimpacting the design of this area and todevelop design recommendations.Interviews with residents and behaviorobservations were conducted andintergenerational workshops helped toclarify common goals, address conflictsand reach consensus on future plans.

The resulting design plan wasdeveloped with an incremental-implementation approach in mind.Discreet design areas were identifiedand stand-alone solutions wereconveyed through drawings and writing.

user needs influencing design

Existing conditions

Image source: http//fic.ic.org/video/ communities.php

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N Street Co-Housing Community Spaceuser needs influencing design

Design by Heather Stovall

Design by Victoria Ngo8

Grant High School Landscape Master PlanPlanting seeds…Developing a vision

Grant High School LandscapeMaster Plan

Professor Owens and UCD alumnusand high school teacher DanielaTavares collaborated to bring togethertheir students in this mutually-beneficialproject. For three months, the GrantHigh Environmental Science Academystudents and UCD landscapearchitecture students worked togetherto develop ideas for improving the highschool’s landscape.

After introductory tours of campus ledby Grant High students, the UCDstudents provided instruction to them onconducting site analysis and behaviorobservations. These behavior mapsalong with photographic surveyscompleted by the high school studentsprovided valuable information on thecurrent use patterns and studentperceptions of campus. The UCDstudents conducted their own siteanalysis, developed a student photosurvey and interviewed teachers andother staff members.

campus tour

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Grant High School Landscape Master PlanPlanting seeds…Developing a vision

During the design development phase,the high school and university studentsworked together to generate designideas. Student teams were responsiblefor particular areas on campus. Thesedesigns were refined and included inthe final document, “Planting Seeds.” Inaddition, the project process wasdocumented through a video, “GHScampus design project,” and can beviewed at youtube.com. The film hasserved as a useful tool to engage otherpartners in the effort to transform theGrant High campus into a healthy,supportive and sustainable campus.

Upon completion of the design masterplan, Professor Owens and UCDstudent Daniel Leninger have continuedto work with the school staff andstudents to make this project a reality.Presentations to the school board,potential funding agencies and othershave generated enthusiastic support.Phase one will consist of improving theWest Campus entry through seatingand shade. Professor Owens willcontinue to involve UC Davis studentson the next phases of the campus plandesign and implementation.

Design by: Erik Gellerman

presentation to chamber of commerce

Design by: Robert Nelson

Design by: Devin Caprari10