In 2009 the City of Zachary had a number of disparate design elements, lacking theme or connection. The park and trail systems that constituted the city needed a cohesive vision to illustrate what recreational aspects of the community could become.

Mayor Henry Martinez and development coordinator Chip Mills of Zachary came to CPEX to help them with this vision.

APPROACH

CPEX connected with two LSU graduate design studios from the School of Architecture (under Professor Aaron Chong) and the School of Landscape Architecture (under Professor Cat Marshall) to fund the development and publication of a book that would provide urban design strategies to connect recreational parkland and pedestrian trail systems.

PLANNING

Over the course of one semester, LSU students in Architecture and the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture collaborated to develop concepts for improving Zachary’s greenways. Students presented their ideas to Mayor Martinez, Mills, and citizens of Zachary so they could give feedback and submit their own ideas. The result was a published plan, Visions of Zachary, driven by the town of Zachary, providing not only a strategy for greenways improvements, but also a successful learning opportunity for LSU students in cross-disciplinary collaboration and designing through a public process.