Ask Oona Johnsen about the rooftop gardens that her landscape architecture class designed and built in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood. Chances are she’ll talk as much about people as about plants. People, she points out, are what landscape architecture is all about.

The client for the rooftop garden project, Cancer Lifeline, is an organization committed to people. And to life. The Lifeline’s main facility, the Dorothy S. O’Brien Center, is open and welcoming to those with cancer, and to coworkers, family, and friends.

“It’s a terrific organization,” Oona said. “Serious in purpose, but full of ideas and energy.”

Each year UW seniors in landscape architecture tackle a community project, often at a school or park. Real-world experience shapes careers; in turn, student work shapes neighborhoods.

UW students translated Cancer Lifeline’s requests for a healing garden into three areas. The first, the Celebration Garden named for Jean Eliot Roberts, is a place for conviviality. It’s completely open to the sun and sky and populated with a wide variety of colorful plants.

Next, the Earth/Sky Garden is partly open to the sky and spectacular views, but partly sheltered by an arbor. The team made copper-clad doors to create areas for multiple use.

The Reflection Garden is smaller, a place for contemplation. Quiet shadows and the rich greens of shade-loving plants dominate; a bamboo trellis shields a neighboring building from full view. A tiny fountain bubbles in a basin containing black rocks and green moss.

UW forestry students plan to monitor the use of the rooftop gardens to gauge visitor use and reactions. Should studies conclude that gardens can promote healing, Oona Johnsen won’t be surprised. One mission of her profession is to help heal the earth in areas where human activity has caused damage, she says. Maybe gardens, in turn, can help heal us.

his project was blessed from the very beginning. We had wanted a healing garden for a long time, but our budget simply wouldn’t allow us to build one. A landscape architect suggested we call the School of Landscape Architecture. Luck was with us. Another student project was canceled soon after we applied, and our request moved to the top. The 11 students in the senior class project quickly formed three design teams, one for each garden area, and conducted a series of interviews with the staff. The process was rigorous. The UW advisors expected thoroughly professional results and so did the students. Their dedication and energy were simply amazing. An example: Because the building wasn’t designed for heavy roof loads, the students specified a special lightweight soil mixture. To get it to the roof they enlisted 20 friends for a bucket brigade one weekend. As problems were resolved and barriers fell, gardens flourished. Looking back, it was one of those precious times when a group of people—in this case, students, advisors and our own staff—shared a passion for a difficult project and, in completing it, gained mutual affection and respect. The result is absolutely priceless. Its impact came home to me powerfully one day soon after the work was completed. One of our clients received some bad news from his doctor and faced difficult decisions. He gathered his notes and reference books from our library and went up to the gardens to think things through in a nourishing, natural setting. And to be in the company of understanding, loving friends.

Barbara Frederick
Executive Director, Cancer Lifeline