The Grant Henry Courtyard at the Indiana School for the Deaf Wins a Monumental Affair Honor Award for Landscape Architecture

November, 2005

Just a week after the Indiana School for the Deaf celebrated the grand opening of the Grant Henry Courtyard, the school had cause for further celebration when it received a Monumental Affair Honor Award for landscape architecture from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. Congratulations to the Indiana School for the Deaf for its contributions to the Indianapolis community and the state of Indiana and for its commitment to quality design.

The following narrative accompanied the award entry.

At the root of Indianapolis' cultural identity are its people—those who have established, enriched, and celebrated a long tradition of music, art, performance, history, and sports. Communities form through and are interwoven with simple commonalities such as geography, heritage, interests, and language. It is an unspoken language, however, that bonds one community across all others—a community that draws members from every neighborhood, all ethnic backgrounds, all ages, and all walks of life. The deaf community in Indianapolis represents an estimated 8,000 people and is an important part of the cultural fabric that makes Indianapolis great. Through a mission to promote educational and social excellence, the Indiana School for the Deaf serves as an invaluable resource for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their families in Indianapolis and throughout the state of Indiana.

In the fall of 1843, William Willard, a deaf teacher from the Ohio School for the Deaf, founded the Indiana School for the Deaf, which just three years later became the sixth state school for the deaf in the nation and the first to provide free education to Deaf children. The present campus on East 42nd Street, just north of the State Fairgrounds, originally opened in 1911. Although its main buildings are registered historic landmarks and new facilities have been erected over the years, the School constantly faces many of the same struggles as other public learning institutions with funding the maintenance and renovation of its facilities.

Parents and staff, concerned with the declining safety and quality of the elementary and preschool playground, formed a committee to raise private funds and set in motion the master planning of a new courtyard. At the beginning of the five-month master planning process in the summer of 2001, the design consultant hosted open meetings with parents and staff to hear their concerns and desires. Participants established strict design criteria to maximize safety and accessibility. From these meetings a new goal evolved to create more than simply a playground—to provide a space that challenges both the mind and body while promoting social interaction between students, staff, and parents.

In the spring of 2003, a donation by a generous philanthropist provided full funding for the project to move ahead into design and construction. This past summer construction was completed, and the new school year welcomed students and staff back to campus and the new Courtyard Playscape. Now, at recess, small to medium-size groups of children, accompanied by staff and parent volunteers, burst into the courtyard along either of two arcing walks that connect the courtyard's four main access points. The monitors direct them to any of three age-appropriate, fully accessible activity areas, which are color coded to clearly define play boundaries. Open lawns and paved areas provide additional multi-purpose activity space. Because nearly all communication at the school is done through signing, the courtyard's design allows monitors to maintain a visual connection with the students at all times. At the center of the courtyard, below a colorful tensile structure, the performance stage serves as a shady place to catch your breath, a time-out area, and a lookout post. Native gardens create a backdrop in which the playful movement of a black swallowtail butterfly or a ruby-throated hummingbird mimics the energy of the children nearby.

The five unique gardens, which loosely interpret some of Indiana's most distinct historic eco-regions, give educators the opportunity to extend the learning environment beyond the walls of the classroom. The students learn about the plants and wildlife common to the oak savannah of northwest Indiana, the sedge meadow of northeast Indiana, the tall grass prairie of central Indiana, the floodplain forest of southwest Indiana, and the upland forest of southeast Indiana and can then relate their own experiences with the flora and fauna of their home regions across the state. Special attention was given to choosing a safe plant palette that was neither toxic in any way nor tall enough to inhibit visibility. Nestled into the trees and grasses of the oak savanna, an outdoor classroom provides students and teachers a more formal area to instruct, present, or study.

The redesign of the courtyard afforded the school an opportunity to create an outdoor space that enriches the lives of not only its students but also the families and staff who devote an incredible amount of energy and passion to their care and education. Adjacent to the outdoor classroom, the dining terrace provides parents and staff a place to simply relax. The new courtyard is equipped to host numerous special events from preschool and elementary graduations to outdoor theatrical productions and open houses. "Art walls" within the courtyard provide exhibit space to display student art, class projects, interpretive displays, and other media.

Approximately eight percent of school-age children in the U.S. have what is termed "educationally significant" hearing loss. The Indiana School for the Deaf believes that hearing loss should not be allowed to interfere with the education or social growth of any child. Its bilingual/bicultural approach to education, which embraces both American Sign Language and English, serves as a model for similar schools nationwide and has put Indianapolis in the forefront of the field. The new Courtyard Playscape reflects the devotion of the School to its students and the commitment of parents to help their children succeed, everyone knowing that success for our children is success for our communities.