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Conclutions:
This research is derived from the attention to old neighborhood revitalization and urban gap recovery. The project is in the form of a proposal, the basic objectives of this project are to set up an initial condition for the site, then let it develop by nature operation, at the same time get community involved in the development process of it, then establish a connection for Norwood Neighborhood, physically and emotionally. The project follows a sequence of find the question, confirm the question, solution experiments, and get the answer. Each step taken has moved the project to a new stage, and helped the designer to get closer to a reasonable design solution. By exploring the site through mapping studies, site visits, and conversations with local residents, the needs of connecting the neighborhood back to Downtown Birmingham and a sense of community had been confirmed. So how to provide the connection and create a community spirit by means of landscape design turned out to be the essential challenges for this project. Historic record showed that the interstate highway had severed the Norwood from the city. Several mapping studies and planning strategy studies also showed that the disconnection between Norwood and Downtown starts from the interstate highway. So to recovery the gap caused by the Interstate Highway and to use the vacant space under the bypass as a connector had been proved to be the suitable solution to this disconnection issue.
As was shown in growing the city design experiment, an urban forest initiative program will be started in Norwood community. The program aims to offer the community an opportunity to start to grow an urban forest on their own hands, and to create a sense of community through the urban forest development processes by getting people work together. The urban forest will become a linkage between Norwood and Downtown, provides attractive recreational space for both people from Norwood and Downtown. While school children are cultivating the forest on this site, they also begin to cultivate a strong tight with their community and this piece of terrain. At the same time, by nature law, seeds from this urban forest will be dispersed to other places in the city. Several years later, an urban forest network will emerge spontaneously in the city. Thus an ecological connection will also be established in the city. In conclusion, this project has explored a new design approach for community revitalization projects, especially when it also relate to environmental concerns. As has been shown in the proposed program development processes, community involvement is essential to this design strategy. By just setting up an initial condition but not a fully designed and finished design project, the development of urban forest will be exposed to nature operation, and the ongoing changing situation would be an interesting part of this project.