Our yard
Plans of the yard
- Site plan (jpg, simplified)
- Site plan (Zip) – AutoCAD 2010 plan (simplified)
- Site plan07(Zip) – AutoCAD 2007 plan (simplified)
- Milk-L3.1-100510 (ZIP), Milk-LBase (ZIP) – AutoCAD plans from Keller Mitchell & Co.
- KellerMitchell-Bid (PDF) - Keller Mitchell‘s bid documents for construction of the amphitheatre seating and softfall.
Photos of the yard (before), issues and opportunities
- Amphitheater – seating with planter space behind. We’ve planted shade-tolerant natives with the kids, see our plant list.
- Behind bungalow – too shady for veggies, lots of water runoff from the hill behind, and difficult access to the back (not wheelchair accessible). Fence ensures restricted access, since supervision is difficult from open yard. In keeping with our environmental justice mandate, to reduce maintenance, and deal with the water runoff, we’re considering a rain garden/ wildlife habitat restoration project here, maybe a little creek running to the back for the kids to explore? Also may be a good spot to grow basketweaving materials, which could tie in to Native American cultural studies and fundraising. Other building materials we could grow are willow for building sculptures and shelters, and papermaking materials. Depending on the results of our soils test, we’re also considering a fruit orchard. Any other ideas, let us know. Update: our soils test results: the eastern part (from entrance to low curb), near the back wall, is pure clay under concrete (4″) and asphalt, and the western part is crumbly red rock, superfast draining, under asphalt.
- Balcony – sunny. opportunity for hanging gardens?
- Kitchen garden: sunny and protected from balls, so we’ll use this area for edible plants in raised beds. also possibly cob oven, built-in benches for sitting and reading? can we define the entrance so balls are kept out more? some ideas gathered from the kids: veggie beds in maze shape, tree with grass to sit under (can also happen in the amphitheater around the ‘teaching tree’ in the sw corner), curtain entrance to ‘enter another world’. the district will remove some asphalt for us this summer, but we’ve committed to providing 5′ permeable paving from the building and the underground vault, so trucks can access the sump drain along the north fence.
- Main building: mostly sunny (except under balcony), opportunity for planters along wall, and lots of space for murals/mosaics. some walls are off limits due to handball.
- Main entrance: define entrance, maintain firetruck access, integrate with adjacent kitchen garden area. Pillars/mosaic/art/greenery - would be great to have some big trees (maybe in containers?). kids suggested butterfly wing gates, totem poles, peace signs from hanging plantcontainers.
- Open yard: keep open for ballplay. Many balls, bodies, frisbees flying. For game lines ideas and progress, see yard painting
- Sidewalk, Collingwood st – sunny
- Sidewalk, Diamond st – shady
- Sidewalk, 19th st – shady
- Under stairs – sunny most of the year. No building allowed under the stairs, but plants are. Adults complain that the blue bars are being used like a jungle gym, increasing supervision workload, so we built a planter box to keep the gymnasts out and beautify the area. However, the kids are upset about losing their ‘secret area’ – can we give them an alternate secret area? the District architect said we could remove the asphalt and safety bars if we replace it with something equally able to prevent visually impaired people from knocking their heads on the stairs. It would be nice to find different spot for compost bin and trash bin too. ideas suggested for the ‘secret space’: a built-in bench, sides defined by planterboxes (strawberries along north side), sculpture/s among the plants in the understairs planter, overhead willow structure to define space (while keeping supervision in mind)…
Progress photos
Construction has started! See how it’s going here.
HMCRA site studies
Wishlist and visual ideas gathered
ideas so far….
ideas from other green schoolyards- pictures from boards above in more detail
- our ideas wishlist (1st board, expanded)
- ideas from other green schoolyards (2nd board, expanded)
Opinions gathered from surveys and interviews:
Yard’s biggest strengths
- Lots of open space for ball play
- New amphitheater for outdoor seating works well
- Front (19th st and Diamond side) plants and mosaics are attractive
- Great community
- The play structure is fun
- New soft-fall provides softer surface to fall on
- Murals – promotes diversity, makes you feel the inclusion, which is the school’s strength
- New milk jug containers from 10/10/10 are pretty
- Security is considered a priority, staff are on top of things and visitors are monitored
- Very clean
- Cozy
Yard’s biggest problems
- Too hard, feels like a concrete jungle – needs green to soften. Fences around yard feels like a cage.
- Needs more living things
- Lots of stuff to bump into
- Too many people go under the stairs and use the safety bars as a jungle gym – increases teachers’ workload
- Not a lot of shady spaces for rec
- No trees for shade and comfort
- Not a lot of colour or interesting spaces/ activity areas
- Water coming down hill @ Diamond St side damaging softfall?
- Safe Area/Kitchen garden: not enough to keep the kids busy, they get up to no good, & supervision is difficult
- No unpaved areas to sit/walk/run on
- Yard unsafe with flying balls
- Plants behind bungalow are inaccessible and veggies won’t grow due to lack of sun
- The blacktop was never sealed – comes off on kids after rain – health risk? District should resurface
- Grounds are dark with daylight savings – safety concern
- Back is empty /lots of underutilized spaces
- Small
- Not swept often enough
- Petroleum based surface a health concern
Yard Issues – Carlos
Although he likes the yard in general and has no complaints, these are things that could be addressed:
Behind the bungalow:
- water comes through the drainage holes in the retaining wall, pools and runs down in front of the green container’s entrance, making the whole area messy. He suggests we think about channeling the water to either connect with the stormwater drain in the yard, or somewhere else. If the ground was permeable, that could alleviate the problem too by soaking up excess water, but a channel should still be considered, as it can be a lot of water at once.
- the water pressure at the tap is too weak, the tap is hard to reach (on the floor), and spilt water runs through the shed to the area between the bungalow and the amphitheater. He suggests we have it fixed, and instead of the pipe laying on the ground he’d like it to go up along the edge of the fenced shed.
- he thinks that the fenced shed would work better as a shed if it had more protection from the elements, like a roof.
- he suggested putting a gate in the fenced shed to the amphitheatre side so the shed can be accessible to both sides.
- he doesn’t see any problem with moving the west window of the bungalow to the south side, and he likes the idea of using that space as additional shed space for white boards and clipboards if need be.
In the yard:
- the drain at the flagpole doesn’t function well. The water pools around it and then runs all the way to the drain in the middle of the yard, making a bigger mess than necessary. He’d like it fixed.
- the fence behind the basketball hoops needs repair.
- the wall behind the flagpole has a big crack in it at the top that he’d like to get fixed.
In the front (19th st):
- he’d like to get the tap that’s not working fixed.
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