Washington, DC

The garden is a key part of the local community, providing fresh food for residents and education on gardening and healthy nutrition. This project aims to increase the capacity of the garden while also making it safer and more accessible for everyone. The project is a collaboration with 11th Street Bridge Project, Building Bridges Across the River (BBAR), Allen Chapel AME, and local Engineers Without Borders DC and other local chapters, as well as NSBE DC, SHPE DC and ASCE DC.

The 11th Street Bridge Park community garden at Allen Chapel in Southeast DC is growing and we need volunteers to help us with construction!  Located at One Bridge Park Plot based in Ward 8, SE DC.  The current site consists of 9 raised beds and 4 fruit trees.  Church seniors maintain gardens and the produce is used for a food pantry.

The Need

Additional raised garden beds were needed. The garden area is on slanted land and not accessible for seniors and handicapped.  The garden has to be watered multiple times and hose has to be carried from a long distance.

The Solution

Produce design to make the garden more accessible for seniors and handicapped.  This includes design of additional raised garden beds, ramp to access them and a closer/more accessible irrigation system.

Progress

We are excited to announce the completion of our local Washington DC Garden Bed Project! The 3 phase, human centered design project brought improved raised garden beds, irrigation systems, and accessible pathways to the 11th Street Bridge Park community garden at Allen Chapel in southeast Washington DC. The EWB Washington DC Professional Chapter collaborated with the EWB Howard University chapter on this project and its completion would not be possible without the hard work and dedication from multiple community collaborators to include the 11th Street Bridge Project/Building Bridges Across the River team, Allen Chapel AME, Clark Construction, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), EWB Montgomery College and EWB Northern Virginia Professionals Chapter. A special thanks to our REIC David Griggs, EWB Howard’s Cheikh Badiane who did a phenomenal job leading this project, EWB-DC’s Derryn Bracey for spearheading the human centered design aspect of the project, Nicole Regobert for leading coordination efforts amongst all collaborators involved and Gordon Meuse who played a pivotal role in implementation and won ASCE’s Community Award for his dedication. A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all the volunteers who worked on this project. We are proud of the work that we did to transform AME’s Garden of Eden into a final product that the community is proud of and look forward to many more community projects in the future!