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2016 Firms of the South: Lift Environmental Design10-04-16 | Feature

Lift Environmental Design
Durham, North Carolina

Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden, Duke University Campus, Durham, North Carolina

The Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden sits within the 55-acre Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the Duke University campus. The design team consisted of the landscape architect, an architect, a civil engineer and the Duke Gardens staff. The Discovery Garden is part of a larger mission to reinvest in the gardens and increase their impact within the community. The garden is a legacy to Charlotte Brody, a passionate organic gardener who taught community members how to grow their own food.

Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden, Duke University Campus, Durham, North Carolina

The Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden sits within the 55-acre Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the Duke University campus. The design team consisted of the landscape architect, an architect, a civil engineer and the Duke Gardens staff. The Discovery Garden is part of a larger mission to reinvest in the gardens and increase their impact within the community. The garden is a legacy to Charlotte Brody, a passionate organic gardener who taught community members how to grow their own food.

A custom metal entry structure welcomes Discovery Garden visitors. A pergola made from reclaimed wood provides shade. A barn constructed from two former tobacco barns is the educational center. The garden exhibits intricate masonry, repurposed materials, pollinator plants and illustrates what crops can grow on small residential-scale parcels. Organically grown fruit and vegetables, bee keeping, plant/insect relationships, sustainable stormwater management and the importance of balancing human production and natural processes are on display. More than 10,000 visitors participate in garden programs and events each year. Durham Public Schools sends all second grade students, about 5,000 kids, to visit the garden each year; the garden also donates some 2,000 lbs. of organically grown produce to local food banks each year.

Lift Environmental Design, PLLC - Lift[ED] - is a small two person landscape architecture firm based in Durham, N.C. During the past five years the firm's work included an NCASLA Honor Award for the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden on the Duke University campus. The project was a SITES pilot project and profiled in the Landscape Architecture Foundation's case study investigation series. Lift believes that too much of nature has been removed from our towns and cities, and thus focuses on creating spaces that help people become closer to nature.

As seen in LASN magazine, October 2016.

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