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One day before the eagerly awaited opening on September 19, volunteers put the finishing touches to the newly designed community garden on the Insel Oase.
Previously known as Mason Community Garden at 1114 S. Mason Ave. has been extensively renovated into a combination of a garden, play area and outdoor meeting room. The 1100 South Mason Block Club has partnered with NeighborSpace, a garden development nonprofit community, and Human Scale, a nonprofit architecture firm, to purchase the property from the city and build the facilities.
The volunteers on the project said it shows how much the community can achieve when they work together and that they take pride in doing their part to improve the island’s only park.
The Island neighborhood is separated from the rest of the Austin parish by the Eisenhower Expressway to the north and industrial operations to the east.
Nate Tubbs, president of the Mason Block Club, said that because the neighborhood doesn’t have its own park, residents should take the freeway to Columbus Park, 500 S. Central Ave., or the parks in neighboring Oak Park and Cicero.
The block club has been taking care of the Mason Avenue property since 2018 and uses it as a community garden, play area and meeting point. They wanted to improve the space, but they didn’t have the money and resources to do it.
East Garfield Park-based NeighborSpace, 445 N. Sacramento Blvd., helps community groups maintain community gardens by paying for insurance, providing access to water, and sharing resources so that community groups do the actual gardening. If the groups are interested in improvement, NeighborSpace will help raise the funds and work with the contractors to make it happen.
On February 29, the city sold the property to NeighborSpace for $ 1. Robin Cline, the organization’s deputy director, said COVID-19 is driving home the importance of outdoor meeting spaces.
Use community gardens as natural spaces for cross-generational activities, not just for planting, but for playing, for being together, for the perception of nature, for the community … the Island Oasis Garden is exactly that, an oasis for this moment.
Robin Cline
“To use community gardens as natural spaces for cross-generational activities, not just for planting, but for playing, to be together, to experience nature, to be part of a community … the Island Oasis Garden is exactly that, an oasis for this moment , ” She said.
In late 2020 and early 2021, Human Scale worked with residents to refine the concept. One of the volunteers involved said she appreciated that the nonprofit took her views into account.
Tubbs said the name of the garden was changed during the design process.
“[The neighbors wanted] to convey that the space is there for the entire neighborhood of the island to enjoy and find peace, ”he said. “There are no other parks or gardens in our neighborhood, so we wanted to connect this space directly with the community.”
A child is playing at Austin’s Island Oasis in September. | Igor Studenkov / Contributor
A child is playing at Austin’s Island Oasis in September. | Igor Studenkov / ContributorThe garden has planters on the fence and on the sides, shelters with tables and benches on the east side of the garden, a wooden stage with a pull-down screen and a wooden pit in the middle, and a play structure on the west end.
According to Aylen Pacheco, founder of Human Scale and director of the gardening project, the benches can be moved to serve as seating when using the stage or as benches for gardening. She also said that they tried to use as many of the existing features as possible. For example, the play structure stairs made use of the existing tree stumps.
Pacheco recalled the first time she saw the property in November 2020 when it was little more than dirt on some of the planters. Everything that has increased since then shows the hard work of the community.
“When the community is given the opportunity to make decisions and be involved throughout development, it creates long-lasting and meaningful spaces,” she said. “Together we have turned an empty property into a garden, space and a source of civic pride.”
On September 18, the volunteers had their last day of work. The following afternoon the grand opening ceremony took place.
Tiffany Sanders, who lives in a house just south of the garden, said she volunteered from the start and called it “a highlight of my summer”.
“I’m really excited about the garden and the potential it has for the kids in the ward,” she said. “We can come together here, socialize and just enjoy.”
Patricia Quinn, who was among the volunteers who brought food, said she was impressed that Human Scale was aware of the community’s contribution.
“Since nobody built the park on the island, we decided to do it ourselves,” she mused. “This is the community that comes together and works.”
Judy Wilson said she was also glad the neighborhood now has its own park
“It brought the neighborhood together and it made it look better, and it made us do it [get to] know our neighbors, ”she said.
The Insel Oase community garden is open from 8 a.m. to sunset. You can find more information about the garden at https://islandchicago.org/the-island-oasis/
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