GATHER ALTADENA
GATHER ALTADENA IS A COMMUNITY GREEN SPACE 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.
DESIGNED IN COLLABORATION WITH MARY NERSESYAN
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.
familiar - shared - grounded -
familiar - shared - grounded -
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.
Entering the space
COMMUNITY PLOTS 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 that care 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 SPACE 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.
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.
SHARED KITCHEN This flexible, hybrid space answers the vow of residents to “come back and take up space.”
MEMORY MAP Residents physically pin handwritten memories onto a corkboard map shaped like Altadena, turning shared stories into a growing, tangible artifact of healing and return.
CHILDRENS SPACES Children’s Art Spaces and playful landscapes acknowledge that the future is watching. These are spaces for making new memories amidst reconstruction, signaling that joy and creativity are essential materials for rebuilding.
SENSORY GARDENS
SHADE EQUITY Airy shade structures are woven throughout the park to support shade equity, creating welcoming places to gather, rest, and cool down. Built with sustainable, low-impact materials, they offer comfort and refuge while strengthening connection to the surrounding landscape.
we did not design a destination, but a process
ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES
Circular material strategy + gentle transformation
Repurposed concrete gabion walls transform leftover material into a durable wayfinding system, reducing waste while embedding memory into the landscape.
Native, place-rooted planting for long-term resilience
Native plantings support local ecology and long-term resilience through a landscape that can recover, adapt, and be resilient to future climate events.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
Community-powered reinvestment loop (social enterprise model)
Affordable garden plots and a donation-based nursery create a self-sustaining system where revenue is reinvested into upkeep, programming, and local rebuilding support, building long-term neighborhood resilience.
