On Aug. 25, UGA students, faculty members and administrators gathered in the Tanner Building to view an exhibit by student interns who spent the summer creating landscape designs for Archway Partnership communities.
During the event, the College of Environment and Design interns met with UGA faculty and staff members to discuss their designs and experiences.
Mel Garber, director of the Archway Partnership; Dan Nadenicek, dean of the College of Environment and Design; David Aldridge, city manager for Hartwell; and Steve Dempsey, associate vice president of public service and outreach, commended the students on their work and thanked them for the time spent creating their designs.
“This is a celebration of wonderful work done by the interns of the College of Environment and Design this summer,” Garber said. “We continue to be impressed with the work coming from the college, and we really enjoyed working with each of you and want to thank you for the value that you bring [to the communities].”
Designs created by the students included the development of public greenways for recreational use and trail walking, enhancement of historical buildings, enrichment of public areas and interstate beautification projects. The designs were presented to the communities for possible implementation.
The collaboration between the Archway Partnership and the College of Environment and Design began several years ago when community representatives asked for help with landscaping for various public areas. During summer semester, 20 interns from the environment and design college were assigned to six of the eight Archway Partnership communities.
Intern Joey Riles provided the students’ perspective as he spoke about their experiences within the communities.
“When you get out in the community and meet with different people and interact and present projects, it actually helps us more than anything,” Riles said.