NEIGHBORHOOD RESILIENCY GARDENS (NRGs)
WEDEW + Public Art + Urban Garden + STEM
Cultivating and sustaining NRGs provides STEAM education, jobs & community disaster preparation…
Los Angeles is at risk for a number of natural and human-made disasters, including drought, earthquakes, fires, floods and landslides. In response to this challenge, LA City’s Resiliency Plan advocates creating Neighborhood Resiliency Hubs.
Neighborhood Resiliency Gardens (“NRGs”) would catalyze these “hubs” by placing WEDEW machines in the school yards that often serve as disaster recovery locations.
WEDEW (“Wood To Energy Deployable Emergency Water”) won the 2018 XPrize Grand Prize for Water Abundance. This machine (set in a shipping container) dehydrates biomass green waste (wood chips, green waste, etc.) to produce 25kWh of clean renewable energy, 300+ gallons of water a day, biochar soil enhancement, all while absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and be carbon negative.
Resiliency IN A BOX is a WEDEW covered with resiliency themed murals that engage and educate the community. Neighborhood Resiliency Gardens are designed around these boxes and offer a community guide to develop these beautiful and vital projects.
Locating NRGs in schools provides opportunities for:
- STEAM education (“Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math”)
- a canvas for public art
- a renewable, sustainable source of potable water,
- soil enhancements and clean energy on a daily basis
- job training and economic development to maintain the machine and harvest the resources
- off-the-grid, vital resources for the entire neighborhood in a disaster!
Ask how you can help grow one soon at a school near you!
Catalyzing community resiliency with action and education!
Proposed Neighborhood Resiliency Garden locations:
Markham Middle School
The CHGs’ Watts Healing Tech Garden at LAUSD’s Edwin Markham Middle School serves 700 middle school students with STEM education. Resiliency IN A BOX would directly benefit these students, their families, and the community with the WEDEW providing access to a pure, renewable source of water for them and the gardens. Additionally, the plants in the garden will be enhanced by the biochar to produce more food and healthier soil. A pivotal impact of this project is that within 1 mile of this garden are 7 other schools and 3 housing projects, making it a strategic gathering space in an emergency.
A community’s ability to respond to and recover from disasters is a measure of its “resiliency”. Lowincome families and communities often suffer disproportionately from these disasters and lack adequate resources to invest in their own resiliency.
Although Watts is only 2 miles wide, it’s one of the densest communities in LA with an average of 17,346 people per square mile. In addition to the 36,815 residents of Watts, the surrounding neighborhoods of Green Meadows, Florence-Firestone, and Willowbrook add up to almost 200,000 people living near the site. The location of this WEDEW is well positioned to serve as a resilience hub for these communities during a disaster.
Resiliency Impact Zone:
1. 📚Alma Reaves Woods/ Watts Branch Library
2. 🎓Compton Avenue Elementary School
3. 🌻Mini Park
4. 🏠Housing Authority of Los Angeles
5. 🎨 Watts Towers Arts Center
6. 🏥Kedren Community Health Center
7. 🎓College Bridge Academy
8. 🏠Watts Senior Citizens Center
9. 🎓Thomas Riley High School
10. 🎓Johnson High School
11. 🏠 Senior Housing
One mile radius
1/4 mile radius
Angels Gate High School
One mile radius
Resiliency Impact Zone:
1. 🎓Point Fermin Elementary School
2. 💦Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
3. 🎓 San Pedro High School
4. 🎨Fort MacArthur Museum
5. 🏠Tierra Vista Communities
6. 🌻Point Fermin Park
7. 💦US Coast Guard
8. 🏠Rancho San Pedro Housing
9. 🏠Pacific Heights US Military Housing
1/4 mile radius
Culver City High, Middle, Elementary Schools
Resiliency Impact Zone:
1. 🎓Culver City High School
2. 🎓Farragut Elementary School
3. 🎨The Wende Museum
4. 🏠Culver City Senior Housing
5. 🎓A-List Montesorri Preschool
6. 🎓La Playa Co-op Nursery School
7. 🌻Culver City Garden Club
8. 🌻Culver City Community Gardens
9. 🌻Coombs Park
10. 🌻 Lindberg Park
11. 🏠Tilden House Residency
One mile radius
1/4 mile radius
Ellen Ochoa Learning Center
Resiliency Impact Zone:
1. 🎓Bell High School
2. 🎓Woodlawn Ave Elementary School
3. 🎓Bell High School
4. 🎓Magnolia Science Academy
5. 🎓Nimitz Middle School
6. 🎓Teresa Hughes Elementary School
7. 🎓Maywood Academy High School
8. 🏠Maywood Manor Co-op Apartments
9. 🏠South Gate Housing Authority
10. 🎓LA Unified School District
1/4 mile radius
Harvard Westlake River Park Campus
Resiliency Impact Zone:
1. 🎨Indian Art Center of California
2. 🎓Emerson Academy for Arts and Sciences
3. 🎓Studio City Branch Library
4. 🎓Bridges Academy
5. 🎓Studio City Co-op Preschool
6. 🎓Opportunities for Learning Charter School
7. 🎓Wish School
8. 🎓Harvard Westlake Upper School
9. 🌻Studio City Recreation Center
10. 🏠S Housing Authority
11. 🏠Housing Authority of Los Angeles
12. 🏠Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment
One
One mile radius
1/4 mile radius
AltaSea Production Location (UCLA)
Resiliency Impact Zone:
1. 🎓Port of Los Angeles High School
2. 🎓15th Street Elementary School
3. 💦US Coast Guard
4. 🏠Gibson Senior Citizen Community Garden
5. 🎨Muller House Museum
6. 🏠Housing the Homeless of America
7. 🏠Tierra Vista Communities
8. 🏠San Pedro Hew Hope Courtyard Apartments
9. 🏠Rancho San Pedro Housing Project
10. 🏠Pacific Crest Military Housing
One mile radius
1/4 mile radius
Connect with the project partners:
AltaSea: Jenny Krusoe, Robin Aube (assembly site, STEM community open house)
Beautify Earth: Evan Meyer and Ruben Rojas (murals)
Community Healing Garden: Nicole Landers (urban farm, student STEM ed)
Skysource: Laura Doss Hertz and David Hertz (WEDEW, Resiliency Lab)
Unycyn Civic Arts: Cynthia Hirschhorn (flowproject.la – project management)
Thanks to our presentation team:
Video: Alex Budman and Nicole Hirschhorn
Images: Coleman Butts and Nicole Kunz
Renderings: Willem Swart, David Hertz, Studio of Environmental Architecture
Website: Cynthia Hirschhorn and Jojo Valdez
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