Grantors Continue to Invest in CSI

LAF recently received two grants to support its 2015 Case Study Investigation (CSI) program, which runs March-August. CSI is a unique research collaboration that matches LAF-funded student-faculty research teams with leading practitioners to document the benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects. The 2015 program features 6 research teams working to evaluate the performance of 18 landscape projects, ranging from the Mount Rushmore Memorial Visitor Services Redevelopment in South Dakota to the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill to Houston's Bagby Street Reconstruction. The resulting case studies will be published to LAF’s award-winning Landscape Performance Series database.

For the third year in a row, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation has supported the CSI program, this time granting $12,500 to support the study of three Chicago-area projects: Mary Bartelme Park, Loyola University Chicago, and Evelyn Pease Tyner Interpretive Center in Elmhurst.

CSI has also received a $25,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This is the fourth straight year that Art Works has supported the CSI program. The NEA received 1,731  eligible applications for this round of Art Works funding. Of those, 960 are recommended for grants totaling $25.6 million. LAF is one of only 55 groups and organizations throughout the country recommended to receive an NEA Art Works grant in the Design category.