Within the Profession Creating a Neighborhood of Affordable Housing by G. Owen Yost, ASLA It has scores of trendy stores, clean streets, well-kept yards, and shiny cars. Lewisville, Texas has everything many other modern suburbs have. Unfortunately, it even has poor people. What sets this Denton County city apart, though, is that it readily admits that some of its citizens are deep in poverty. But, Lewisville is doing something about it, with the help of a non-profit group called Christian Community Action (CCA). One of CCA's projects is building affordable housing, such as their latest neighborhood, known simply as "Phase Two." But when it was almost finished, everyone realized that it lacked a real sense of neighborhood-- but nobody knew exactly what that meant. A group of CCA contributors and employees toured other neighborhoods. They determined that a cohesive "neighborhood" almost always contains landscaping, usually central to the homes so that it acts as a pivotal focus for the residents. Consequently, a joint effort to landscape the site was developed. Since CCA relies almost entirely on volunteer expertise and services, a member of CCA's Affordable Housing Committee, Landscape Architect G. Owen Yost, ASLA, volunteered to design the landscape. The challenge was to design it without knowing the expertise of the installers, or the type of materials to be donated! Consequently, Yost "overdesigned" a great deal; for instance calling for 1 1/2" sprinkler conduit, knowing that 1 1/4" would normally do. And plants were spaced more closely and more informally than usual, recognizing that many would succumb to the inexpertise of volunteer labor. CCA employee Barbara Carey contacted dozens of suppliers in the area; most were glad to contribute. Carey and Yost requested donations of simple-to-care-for and native plants such as holly and nandina, along with hardscape materials, irrigation hardware, fencing and concrete. A complete playground was donated as well. The landscape design had to be modified on a minute-by-minute basis. First, it was not certain what plants were available to work with, until the day of the installation; second, the level of skill of the volunteers, and their progress during the day, was a constant question. Yost's solution, a "concept" design, was posted at several strategic spots on the site. The concept plan, for instance, specified only a "shrub mass" at several locations. Decisions as to specific plants, spacing and exact bed dimensions could only be determined on the spot. Consequently, most of Yost's day consisted of seat-of-the-pants landscape design-- such as deciding to plant a grove of plum trees in a certain location because there were five donated plum trees delivered mid-morning, and there were several volunteers who needed something to do! The result was affordable housing with a real sense of place. The residents of Phase II helped with the planting, and are voluntarily maintaining (watering) the newly-installed plants until the irrigation is pressure-tested. One resident of the neighborhood (who may not have a home at all if it weren't for CCA) thanked the volunteers profusely, commenting that she could now bring guests home and feel good about it, since it no longer looked like low-income housing. Thanks like that, and seeing the kids' smile as they play on the playground, and seeing the increase in outdoor activity-- is plenty of thanks to the Landscape Architect and the many volunteers. LASN Response to renovating Phase Two was incredible. Not only was more than enough landscape material donated, but a nearby AT&T office volunteered to install it. CCA Affordable Housing Committee member Sam Austin directed a team of approximately 100 volunteer laborers. All photos provided courtesy of the author.