What is a Post Occupancy Evaluat

HEALTHCARE AND THERAPEUTIC GARDEN DESIGN

As a teenager, Krawczyk spent time with her grandmother who was legally blind. To stimulate her grandmother’s love of gardening, Krawczyk started an indoor herb garden on her window ledge. This opened the floodgate of her grandmother’s memories about herbs and plants from the farm where she had grown up as a child, and piqued the younger girl’s interest in the role of plants in people’s lives.

Krawczyk has dedicated the past ten years of her work to the design of environments that provide therapeutic benefits to people, especially children with special needs. Her master plan for St. Edmond’s Home for Children in Rosemont, PA, resulted in a series of sensory gardens for the young children with profound handicaps who reside there. This has led her to research and promote restorative gardens and adaptive playgrounds for children with autism and ADHD, as well as for older adults and people with disabilities.

Examples of Projects and Presentations:

Series of Sensory Gardens for St. Edmond’s Home for Children, Rosemont, Pennsylvania.
“Pathways as Corridors Towards Therapy,” presentation at Annual Conference of the American Horticultural Therapy Association, Norfolk Botanical Gardens, Norfolk, Virginia, September 21, 2002.
Three Courtyard Gardens for Medford Leas Courtyards Retirement Community, Medford Leas, New Jersey.
“Courtyard Designs for Medford Leas,” presented with Jack Carman, FASLA at the Therapeutic Conference on Aging, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum, Medford Leas Community, New Jersey, April 20, 2004.
Courtyard Design for Residents with Dementia, Spring Mill Presbyterian Home, Conshohocken, PA.
Horticultural Therapy Table Designs, Wilmington Hospital, Wilmington, DE.
Playful Planting Box and Child-Attracting Landscaping on the Playground, Hilltop Preschool, Wilmington, DE.