Laurie Tanenbaum:  Designer, Project Manager
Masters Degree-Conway School of Environmental Landscape Design (www.CSLD.edu)

 My interest in sustainable landscape design grows out of a life of art, gardening, and the politics of social justice.

Growing up, my second home was Circle Pines Center, a 360 acre cooperative and summer camp in Michigan. Summers were spent on work projects including building roads and cabins, learning a wide variety of arts taught by professional artists, caring for the huge organic vegetable garden that fed us, and playing our hearts out.  Environmentalists shared their enthusiasm for the land and taught us how to care for the huge pine groves.  Astronomers taught about the skies and campers were awed by what could be seen through the telescope. The playgrounds were the wild flower fields and the mysteries of the forests.

As a young adult my employment included gardening with former mental patients, and collective bargaining representative in health care.

Gardening has always been part of my life, from trying to grow pickles as a seven year old, to flower boxes on the third floor balcony, and finally going wild with the space around my home.

 The decision to study and practice sustainable landscape design was really the convergence of all of the above.  The Conway School of Environmental Design was the experience that linked up the environment with the social justice movement, the combining of the beauty of color and texture, the enjoyment of good collaboration with the an eye for design.

  On the small scale it's utterly fun to assist people in creating a healthy dream for their yards.  In my neighborhood I am the design/horticulture professional for the Paseo Prairie Garden (see Portfolio), a community project that has turned a neglected piece of land into a "neighborhood jewel," utilizing only plants and grasses of the Illinois prairie.  In 2006 I collaborated with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and parents of McAuliffe School in Humboldt park, to landscape their playground and create gardening space for the pre-schoolers.

  I have collaborated with Efraim Velasquez Landscaping, the plant/build arm of my designs, for 6 years.