Registration Eligibility
PA-DE ASLA Members and Nonmembers and Student Members and Nonmembers
Start Date
04/23/2026
End Date
04/25/2026
Description
Follow the story of how an abandoned reservoir was reclaimed by the surrounding community through urban agriculture, university partnerships and consensus building design practice.
The Rodney Reservoir was built at the highest point on Wilmington’s dense, urban West Side community. The capped reservoir served as a public green space hosting ice skating, music performances and much more until it fell into disrepair and was ultimately abandoned, condemned and fenced off from the community. In 2010 residents took the initiative to build a community garden on part of the site, which became a hub of learning and communal gathering. When the site faced the threat of privatization and development in 2022, residents formed the group Green for the Greater Good (GGG) to organize and advocate for the site to remain public, safe and green.
GGG partnered with the University of Delaware Landscape Architecture program to conduct community design workshops. Residents and students worked together to articulate a vision and design concept to transform the site into a community and nature-focused park. Hinge Collective was hired by the City to bring the community vision to life with the guidance of a working group made of community leaders and city officials. Hinge facilitated a community engagement process focused on consensus-building. The success of this process led to the funding of the project through a bond bill. The park, now open, features native forest, wildflower meadow, a native forage orchard, a community garden and outdoor classrooms to support environmental education and urban agriculture programming.
Location
Dewey Beach, DE
Distance Learning
No
Course Equivalency
No
Subjects
Health, Safety and Welfare
Yes
Hours
1.0
Learning Outcomes
1. Develop strategies for leveraging community power and partnerships to implement large scale projects.
2. Identify key engagement techniques for building consensus when their are disparate objectives.
3. Integrate environmental education into design proactive and the built environment.
Instructors
Ari Miller, Jamila Davey, and Anna Wik
Course Codes
Provider
Pennsylvania/ Delaware Chapter ASLA