Gather Altadena — SOPHIA METZGER

SUSTAINABILITY concept

AWARDS

First Place, Denhart Sustainability Prize 2026

A Framework for Gentle Transformation and Recovery in Altadena

IN RESPONSE TO THE EATON FIRES In January 2025, the Eaton Fires devastated Altadena, California destroying over 6,000 homes and displacing families across its close-knit foothill community.

Gather Altadena is a community greenspace designed as a vessel for healing, resilience, and renewal in the wake of the recent Eaton fires, supporting collective recovery and long-term community growth.

PROJECT DONE IN COLLABORATION WITH MARY NERSESYAN AND RUBY YUAN

VISION STATEMENT

Where roots remember fire and ash,
hands meet the living earth...
not to rewrite the past,
but to keep tending what endures.

Here, art and earth entwine,
the community gathers in shared light.
A concious pulse of renewal,
rooted in resilience and growth.

COMMUNITY GARDEN

The Community Plots are a place to gather, connect, and plant seeds together, nurturing new growth until it’s ready to be brought home. By growing here first, residents build resilience side by side and carry back into their own gardens.

NURSERY + TOOL LIBRARY

Purchasing and planting a tree from the nursery directly supports the community’s ability to rebuild and remain rooted in place. By nurturing what grows here, residents collectively protect both the present moment and the future they are shaping together.

ART SPACES

The art space is an open, natural setting where creativity unfolds with the landscape. By blurring the boundary between studio and outdoors, it invites visitors to slow down, create, and reconnect with their creativity as a grounding, restorative experience.

MEMORY MAP

The memory map transforms trauma into a healing path, creating a space for reflection, remembrance, and quiet moments to honor what was lost and the memories that remain.

MATERIAL strategy

Memory is woven into the material language of the site, using repurposed concrete pieces into gabion pony walls that guide visitors through the space.

SHARED KITCHEN

The physical and emotional heart of the project is the Shared Kitchen. With homes gone and the park partially closed, the need for a living room for Altadena is urgent. This flexible, hybrid space answers the vow of residents to “come back and take up space.”