Rutgers Universal Access Garden Pilot

Objective

This pilot garden is part of AIR Collaborative’s aim to create a series of Universally Accessible Gardens on Rutgers land to foster spatial justice for people with disabilities. A Rutgers Research Council Social and Racial Justice Grant allowed the construction of a small pilot garden on the site of 178 Jones Avenue in New Brunswick, where the new garden joins existing community gardens and the weekly Johnson & Johnson Farmers Market.

This pilot was designed and build by landscape architecture students (the grant hardly covered the cost of materials and plants) and will be programmed for and undertaken by people with disabilities. Interns from the Douglass Discovery Program accompanied the project from the concept to the opening and documented the process on social media.

Please consult our pamphlet to learn more about the therapeutical benefits of gardening and the main principles of universal design.

Download the Rutgers Universal Access Garden Pamphlet (PDF)

Event

Come by and plant the garden with us on May 10 at 9:00am.
178 Jones Avenue
(10-minute walk from Cook Campus)

Learn about universal design, spatial justice, and the therapeutical benefits of gardening!

Collaborators

Javier Robles, Rose Greenblatt (Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences) • Vincent Javet and Han Yan with students of the Spring 2023 Construction II Course at the Department of Landscape Architecture; Meredith Taylor (Rutgers School of Biological and Environmental Sciences) • Douglass Discovery Program Interns — all with the AIR Collaborative (Anette Freytag, Jackie Thaw, Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan and Julia M. Ritter for the Research Council Grant)

Support

Rutgers Research Council Social and Racial Justice Grant • Douglass College — Discovery Program Faculty Fellows Internships