Floura Teeter collaborated with the Community Design Collaborative to provide landscape design services for the Esperanza Health Center (EHC) ‘campus’ revitalization. Our focus was on reimagining the Shelbourne site, a cluster of vacant lots adjacent to the new EHC CORE building. The site will function as an extension of the CORE building’s programming to create a safe and vibrant space for the community.
Community engagement and involvement was a major element of the project – including three charrettes and three community review meetings among other events. Throughout the engagement process, we discussed the challenge of making this outdoor space work in a complex environment with various safety concerns. After multiple design iterations, we distilled the community’s desires and stakeholder input into a single, community-driven design.
The result is a flexible, lush park with various seating options for passive recreation. The open lawn and paved spaces can be activated as play areas and to host a range of community programs and events. To ensure safety, the design improved lighting and added buffers to deter unwanted activities. Our design balances aesthetics and functionality, delivering a welcoming community asset that caters to diverse needs.
