CLASS NOTES
Gates drew inspiration from other gardens, such as the Beacon Food Forest in Seattle, Wash., and two photos he hung in his studio – one of cupped, dirt-covered hands holding turnips, and another of a hand reaching for a single blueberry, symbolizing the growing and sharing of food as an essential human activity. Yet his hand-shaped garden design clicked into place only after his rambunctious seven-year-old son Owen drew outlines of his hand on several sketches in his attic studio.
“He was doing something so common, cross-culturally and globally. Some of the earliest pre-historic drawings are human hands on cave walls,” says Gates. / BELOW (from left to right) Joseph Messick (MArch ‘02), Samson Oshunrinde (MArch ‘01), William Gates (MArch ‘01), Ela Pogwizd-Leja, a former student of Gates, and UB engineering alumnus Arif Ilahi Khan. Photo by Catherine Zanev
When the upcoming demolition of a temporary building on the site forced the team to move the garden to a new location, Gates and the newly-formed UN Food Gardens Club pressed on, adjusting the design in record time while also raising funds and material donations for the volunteer effort. The first of two sections, the “South Garden,” was completed in time for the 2015 growing season. UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon was so taken with the project that he chose the South Garden as the location of the Nelson Mandela International Day celebration in July, serving as the garden’s official opening. Learn more about their work at unfoodgardens.org
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