America’s landscape reflects the history of industrialization across the country; take a drive through the coal-mining regions of Pennsylvania, for example, and you’ll see evidence of rundown mills, half-abandoned mining towns, condemned structures, and other physical markers of what was once a booming industry town. As communities seek to adapt to the changing face of industry in America, they seek solutions to complex problems: how can communities memorialize their histories without erasing them? How can sites of industrial and natural disaster be recuperated into sustainable communities? What are the connections between landscape, architecture, and identity when that community has experienced industrial disaster, change, or recuperation?  

This class is partnered with Georgia Tech’s Serve-Learn-Sustain; through engagement with community partners in Jackson, Georgia, students will work together to create communication which aids the Henderson School Alumni Association Trust as they work to use a recent EPA Brownfields and Land Revitalization Program grant to transform and re-purpose Old Henderson High & Elementary School into a community center which provides education, resources, community aid to Jackson, GA.