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Landscape Architecture students at North Carolina A&T University are engaging with projects in the historic Oberlin Village community in Raleigh. Through these projects students will gain valuable experience in community design and collaboration.
Oberlin Village was the largest of 13 Freedman’s villages established around Raleigh by freed slaves following the Civil War. The senior students have learned about the people, places, and stories associated with the community, gaining insight through tours of historical sites, recent development projects, public spaces and public art installations, research, and conversations with residents.
Students have been hosted by members of the Friends of Oberlin Village and met with City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources staff at the Latta University site, an early school for African Americans which will become a Raleigh park.
The students are working in teams as part of N.C. A&T’s collaborative studio. They will prepare plans for historic homes and improvements to the historic Oberlin Cemetery, presenting their work later in the semester to a group of Professional Landscape Architects as well as the community.
Steve Cancian, PLA, and Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at N.C. A&T, leads the studio and Brian Starkey, PLA, Project Director at WithersRavenel and Trustee of the North Carolina chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (NCASLA), brought the students and community together.