Architecture Foundation of Georgia awards Grant to Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture

The Architecture Foundation of Georgia (AFGA) has recently initiated the AFGA Community Grant program, which is providing its inaugural 2012 grant support to Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture (TLW). In addition to more than $3,000 in funding for TLW, design services are being donated by the AIA and from students of the architecture schools in Georgia.

The design effort is part of the AIA Legacy Charette, which provides a positive community impact to the host city of the tri-annual South Atlantic Region (SAR) conference of the AIA. The SAR includes Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and this year's SAR conference was held in Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 19-22.

Fundraising was kicked off at the AIA Atlanta host chapter party at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens on Sept. 19, 2012 and will be ongoing for the duration of the grant period. The design services began on September 21, with a visit to the TLW Wheat Street Gardens farm located off of Auburn Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward. A design charette was held the following day at the Southface Eco Office. Five teams of students competed, creating a buildable design to accommodate educational and other activities on the urban farm. Recycled materials from the Lifecycle Building Center were utilized in the designs as much as possible.

The winning design concept was selected by a jury including K. Rashid Nuri of TLW, Quinton Watson of Urban Construction, Tom Brown of Perkins+Will, Shannon Goodman of Lifecycle Building Center, and Tyrone Rachal of Invest Atlanta and an AFGA board member. Students from Southern Polytechnic School of Architecture and Savannah College of Art and Design comprised the winning team. In the coming months, additional work may be done to develop the selected design concept in anticipation of potential construction of the facilities.

About AFGA: The Architecture Foundation of Georgia, founded by AIA members nearly 40 years ago, provides scholarships to architecture students in the three schools of architecture in the state of Georgia and supports community improvement and appreciation of the value of design through its grants and collaboration with Georgia architects. The Architecture Foundation of Georgia always welcomes donations in support of its mission and purpose to help enrich life in Georgia through good design.