The Environmental Design Research Association announced its 2010 Great Places Award winners, and recognized Greening Cities, Growing Communities: Learning from Seattle’s Urban Community Gardens with the award for a recently published book advancing the critical understanding of place and the design of exceptional environments. The book is the fifth in LAF’s Land and Community Design Case Study Series.

To celebrate this important achievement, LAF, along with the George Washington University Landscape Design Program and the Potomac Chapter and Maryland Chapter of ASLA, hosted authors Jeffrey Hou and Julie Johnson from the University of Washington and Laura Lawson from the University of Illinois for a lecture, reception, and book-signing event in Washington, DC on June 2, 2010.  The authors presented insights from their research to an engaged audience of over 50 landscape architects, community organizers, students, and community gardening enthusiasts. 

The book highlights community gardens in Seattle where there has been a strong network of knowledge and resources. The case studies reveal the capacity of urban gardens to address larger community issues, like food security, urban ecosystem health, sustainable design, active living and equity concerns. The authors also examine how landscape architecture, planning, and allied design professionals can better interact in the making of these unique urban open spaces.

More information and online ordering are available through the University of Washington Press.