Site Selection 4J Elementary Schools

Because this master’s project involves the designing of butterfly habitats upon elementary schools grounds within an urban context, the selection process of determining which schools to select is the next step.

Admittedly, a butterfly garden can be designed upon a myriad of potential sites. However, choosing elementary schools as potential habitat gardens was based on the following determining factors;

I chose the 4J elementary school system because this system met most if not all criteria for school butterfly habitat garden potential. I wanted a garden that can engage the age demographic of grades K through 5th, as these ages show the greatest degree of empathy for the development of stewardship for wild places. The criteria were set based on the Niche Blog which compares private vs public school systems and lists the advantages and disadvantages to both systems.

1. Potential for the greatest network area 2. Demographic of student ages (K-5th grades) 3. Greatest variety of student body diversity

4. Greatest distribution of school districts across multiple habitat types 5. Greatest needs of school ground improvement

6. Greatest potential government funding potential for habitat garden programs

Once I determined that a 4J elementary school was an appropriate site for the potential for butterfly habitat gardens I set about conducting site visits. During the weeks of July 24, the and August 18th 2017, I visited all twenty 4J elementary schools, evaluating each school and performing a series of site analyses. All school grounds were photo documented and evaluated. In all, 980 images were taken, capturing each school’s characteristics. The main criteria were assessed for each school grounds.

1. School with a surplus of open turf grass space that did not have a direct and obvious set of programming applied to it (ball fields. Running track, etc.).

2. School with an active vegetable garden program.

3. School that is within a quarter-mile of a natural area. This natural area needed to be different than a park, as parks can be devoid of native vegetation.

4. Existing native vegetation remaining on school grounds. 5. Located near a year round fresh water source.

After evaluating each school, I chose the Willagillespie Elementary School in north central Eugene. The school had an excellent working vegetable garden program, but more importantly the school grounds comprised of 4.4 acres of habitat garden potential. The school also resides no more than 900 feet from an intact oak savanna city park, Gillespie Butte.

Once a school site was chosen, I conducted a more in depth site analysis. A plant survey revealed that the property has an existing semi-mature mixed oak woodland of over an

Methods

acre on the eastern side of the property and the north border of the property has a year round source of water that drains through and off the property.

GIS mapping of school distribution

Bringing in the shapefile of the schools of Eugene into ArcGIS allowed me to see all schools from preschool to high school which occur within the UGB of Eugene (Fig. 2.15). Generating a simple map of the twenty 4J elementary schools of Eugene, allowed for a simplified spatial analysis of the distribution of schools and how a network of working butterfly habitat gardens might look.

Once the exact school site was determined, I attained several images from Google Earth and imported these images into AutoCAD to generate a series of site design maps. Through these site map images, I set to divide the property into thematic use zones of buildings, play spaces, parking and drop off zones, sports and activity fields and current open spaces. The current open spaces were further evaluated for potential butterfly habitat garden spaces. I determined that the greatest potential spaces for butterfly habitat gardening resided to the periphery. I then divided these spaces into

Figure 2.15 Location of 4J elementary schools of Eugene

distinct habitat typologies and generated a habitat zone map, assigning each zone the appropriate habitat typology color code. Although the school resided on historically mixed

Methods

prairie habitat, the existing woodland and close proximity to the Gillespie Butte savanna allowed me to determine that there were four potential butterfly habitat garden themes; wet prairie, upland prairie, oak savanna, and oak woodland. Research Through designing

I see design as a communicative tool, strongly influenced by and asserting an art-based component. It is recognized how artistic knowing can complement scientific analysis (McNiff 2013). Knowing which areas of research may not need an art-based component to convey information compared to which areas of design research most benefit from an art-based component is a key process through the pragmatic approach to designing. The generation of new ideas through the action of designing (verb) applies with the research strategy, research through designing.

Working closely with the foundational steps accomplished in the first half of this project (building the palette) with the research for design and the research through designing components are blended into the language of graphic representation. The research through designing section aims at the generation of new knowledge (Fig. 2.16).

The primary generative information during the research through designing phase of this master’s project focuses around the butterfly life histories of life cycle, butterfly needs, and butterfly behaviors. Each life history component is broken down into individual parts and examined as a single construct, then rebuilt back into the design model to show both spatial and temporal relationships that butterflies share with their environment. Understanding these components and the best strategies to employ them within a design context helps the reader understand how each element should/could be used to maximize the benefits for the survival of butterfly species within the context of the garden space.

Figure 2.17 First level icons to building a graphic language

Although I see the first half of my methods; literature review and direct observation as research for design components, admittedly there are numerous contributions of new knowledge that were derived from this process, namely in the construction a butterfly and plant palette. Thus research for design and research through designing components were used when and where needed to form this research strategy.

Methods

I address the second half of the project through a generative process of creating a visual base of communication. The first step, the building of a graphic language.