{"id":4799,"date":"2026-09-14T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/?p=4799"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:14:22","slug":"designing-with-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/designing-with-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing With Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 Sept. 14, 2026 \u2014 A pavilion nestled among white pines. A trail winding through a forest. A revitalized pond where neighbors can meet, play, and relax. Those are some of the possibilities University of Rhode Island landscape architecture students envisioned this summer through the Regenerative Community Design Lab<\/a> (RCDL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Aldana, Anthony Cordova, Nyla Darosa, Brandon Thorp, and Mags Valente worked with residents and local officials in Richmond, North Providence, and Scituate to develop community-informed conceptual plans. Stephanie Nordhoff \u201925 served as project manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lab, a collaboration between URI\u2019s Landscape Architecture program<\/a> and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management\u2019s Urban and Community Forestry Program, launched in 2024 under the direction of Associate Professor and Program Director Jane Buxton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing community-led, data-driven design,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cWe\u2019re really engaging with the community to find out what they want, but we\u2019re also looking at the bigger picture including how the environmental and human systems are interconnected. By bringing those pieces together, we can develop solutions that address community priorities while also improving the health and resilience of the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening Before Designing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That process begins long before students draw their first concept. The team studies each community\u2019s history, culture, demographics, municipal plans, and priorities. Using GIS, students examine circulation, recreation opportunities and connections to larger ecological systems such as watersheds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But maps and data tell only part of the story. \u201cAs designers, it\u2019s our responsibility to represent the people we\u2019re designing for, not impose our designs on them,\u201d Nordhoff said. \u201cWe\u2019re conduits to help them achieve their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means talking with the people who use a space \u2014 and learning to listen when their priorities differ from those of municipal officials or designers. \u201cPeople want to be involved,\u201d  Nordhoff said. \u201cThey want to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The team connected with community members to hear their ideas and priorities, using their input to shape visions for the future of local parks and public spaces.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Community engagement is built into each project. Students survey residents and host events to speak directly with people about what they want to see changed or added. They use that feedback to develop concepts, and then return to the community for another round of input and to refine their plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cordova, that public-facing work was initially intimidating. \u201cI\u2019m very shy,\u201d he said. His first community engagement event was \u201cnerve-wracking.\u201d But by the second project, he wanted to keep doing it. \u201cPeople were glad that we were there, wanting to help them in some way,\u201d he said.

Three Communities, Three Visions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In North Providence, students focused on Encompass Park, exploring ways to make it cooler, safer, and more welcoming through increased tree canopy, formalized parking, green stormwater infrastructure, and improvements to the park\u2019s overall character and function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Scituate, students worked with a park featuring tennis courts, recreation areas, and a pond. They developed two concepts: one focused on practical, near-term improvements and another that envisioned the park\u2019s longer-term potential.

That more ambitious \u201cdream\u201d plan included additional gathering areas, a dog park, and a revitalized pond. It also proposed an ice-skating rink \u2014 an idea that resonated with longtime residents who remembered skating there years ago. At the same time, students considered whether warmer, less predictable winters would make outdoor skating a viable long-term investment.

Residents helped shape the final proposal by placing stickers on the features and concepts they preferred. Students then turned that feedback into a phased plan that could help the town pursue grants for individual improvements, such as new trees, benches and picnic tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town of Richmond presented a different kind of challenge: how to create a community gathering place while protecting an existing forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students proposed trails through white pines and native vegetation, along with new trees, grass, a pavilion and a learning center. Rather than removing the site\u2019s existing rocks and boulders, they incorporated them into the design as part of the landscape\u2019s character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art With Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Nordhoff, the projects demonstrate why landscape architecture is more than creating attractive spaces. \u201cOur medium is alive,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s moving and evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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From left to right: Brandon Thorp, Mags Valente, Nyla Darosa, Anthony Cordova, Barbara Aldana, Stephanie Nordhoff, and Dr. Jane Buxton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That makes the work both creative and practical: students must understand the landscape as it exists today while thinking about how it might function years from now \u2014 for the people who use it and the natural systems that support it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A URI landscape architecture alumna, Nordhoff first joined the lab as a rising senior during its inaugural year and has since returned as project manager. Buxton credits her commitment to the lab, belief in its mission, energy and passion as driving forces behind its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the RCDL students, this summer was an opportunity to practice landscape architecture in its fullest sense \u2014 combining design, ecology, data, communication, and public service to help Rhode Island communities imagine what comes next.

A Reciprocal Relationship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buxton sees the Lab as creating a reciprocal relationship between the university and the communities it serves. Students gain firsthand experience working with residents, community organizations, and municipal leaders, learning how to connect data, environmental systems, and community priorities to real-world design and planning challenges. Communities, in turn, gain new ideas, technical expertise, and conceptual plans that can help them envision and move toward future projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also believes this work is especially well aligned with URI\u2019s new Department of Earth Science, Planning and Design<\/a>, which brings together expertise in landscape architecture, planning, and the earth sciences. Together, these disciplines create opportunities to look at community challenges from multiple perspectives and to develop solutions that are both grounded in science and responsive to the people and places they serve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer, URI landscape architecture students worked with Rhode Island communities to imagine new possibilities for parks, public spaces, and places to gather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":4800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4799"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4807,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions\/4807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/espd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}