Community Collaborations

Conway hosted an event organized by the Western Massachusetts chapter of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. Students from Conway, Smith College, and UMass Amherst worked with local landscape architects and planners to develop ideas for a parklet to be installed on PARK(ing) Day.

The Conway School works with mission-aligned communities and organizations to help deepen and broaden our impact. These partnerships may lead to student projects; provide additional learning opportunities for alums, faculty, and staff; and create opportunities for the school to contribute to discourse on timely planning and design challenges. Organizational partners include the Ecological Landscape Alliance, Yestermorrow Design/ Build School, TerraCorps, and Permaculture Skills Center. These partnerships provide benefits, such as discounts on continuing education for students and alums. Conway additionally collaborates with organizations like the Society for Ecological Restoration-New England Chapter. Agreements with the University of Georgia and University of Massachusetts Amherst create a path for Conway alums to apply for advanced placement in these schools’ MLA programs. Conway enjoys collaborating with undergraduate schools on events, and the school is a member of ALPINE, an emerging network that seeks to expand the role that New England academic institutions play in land conservation.

Long-term collaborations and partnerships with municipalities and other landowners (particularly nonprofits) allow Conway to complete multiple projects with a single client and/or on a single site. This can improve the work students are able to do and increase the depth of insight in the designs they produce for the client. In a relationship that spans more than ten years, Conway has worked with Nuestras Raices, a nonprofit dedicated to local food production and environmental justice. Conway completed four major projects with the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge (MA) since 2011. Partnering with the International Sonoran Desert Alliance allowed three teams of students to work in Ajo, Arizona. In Keene, New Hampshire, a group of civic-minded residents arranged for back-to-back student projects in 2014: three students worked across two terms to prepare a plan to convert a parking lot into a riverside park. After graduation, the clients hired one of these students to help complete the design and launch a fundraising campaign to build the park.

Relationships with local cities and towns have also yielded multiple projects. For the City of Holyoke, Conway students completed an Open Space and Recreation Plan (2018), green infrastructure designs for a series of streets (2017), and Green Streets Guidebook (2014). For the City of Chicopee, students created a plan for Delta Park (2015), stormwater designs for a neighborhood (2017), and a plan for a multi-use trail (2020). Conway has conducted multiple projects with regional planning agencies (e.g., Pioneer Valley Planning Commission), land trusts (e.g., The Trustees of Reservations), and other non-profit organizations (e.g., Nipmuc Cultural Preservation Inc.), and looks forward to maintaining and making new connections.