The University of Oregon (UO) Urban Farm project began in 1976 as a student-led initiative to grow food on unused campus land. Spearheaded by landscape architecture professor Richard Britz, who outlined his theories in the publication "The Edible City Resource Manual" - the initiative continued to this day thanks to the efforts of Ann Bettman and Harper Keeler, current Urban Farm director since 2007.

 

Over the years, the space allocated for the Urban Farm has significantly varied, alternating periods of growth by agilely occupying leftover spaces to respond to the increasing student demand, with periods of shrinkage due to campus development. Due to the construction of a new adjacent research facility, the Urban Farm lost 30% of its productive land since 2022 - including 34 trees, multiple berry bushes, and raised beds - leading to an uproar from the UO community and uniting students, faculty, and related allies beyond the University boundary. As a result, a new 1.9-acre site along the Willamette River was secured in 2023 by the College of Design, in addition to a one-million-dollar donation to develop this land.

However, the complexity of the project and its contentious nature, with the UO community still mourning the recent loss, put the initiative on hold for almost a year, until professors Ignacio Lopez Buson and Mary Polites led a collaborative studio in the summer of 2024 to create a visioning master plan for the new site with the help of students and local stakeholders.

This six-week studio was an ideal opportunity for developing and implementing an experimental co-design methodology with landscape architecture and architecture students. By combining principles of spatial and service design, public engagement, rapid prototyping, and multi-media communication, this initiative aimed to rekindle a necessary dialogue while honoring the community-centric legacy of Christopher Alexander's work at the UO campus through his seminal work: The Oregon Experiment.