Verde Design was retained by the Hayward Unified School District to provide analysis and design services related to the Tennyson High School Community Garden, also known as the Tennyson High School Farm. The scope of work for this project generally included a site inventory and analysis, community outreach with volunteer farmers, communications with farmers to the requirements the district needed to enforce and preparation of a final conceptual design and phasing strategies. Ancillary work included construction cost estimating, preparation of reports and recommendations, shade study, circulation review, and soils analysis.
The goal of the project was to address the concerns raised by the District regarding access and maintenance of the site as well as address the needs and concerns of the community stakeholder groups that operate and maintain the Farm. Additional emphasis was placed on the requirements of DSA for approval of the site design. Verde Design conducted several community outreach meetings and provided Spanish-language translation services to ensure that the needs and wants of the volunteer Farmers were taken into consideration with the final conceptual design. The conceptual design phase also explored ideas from previous student input collected by the school such as an agroforest, medicine wheel garden, and walking labyrinth. Through this endeavor, it is the hope of the District to garner public support and generate funding for future improvements.
