Project Overview
The grand opening of Western Technical College’s Horticulture Education Center served the dual purpose of unveiling a new name for the community partnership that created the facility.
Get Growing is the name of the unified effort among Western, the Hillview Urban Agriculture Center, Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare and the La Crosse Community Foundation. The name is intended to reflect the partnership’s mission to instill healthy eating habits and foster education about gardening, agriculture and sustainable practices to realize that goal. HSR Associates is proud to be a part of it.
This collaboration is the first of its kind, bringing together educators, growers and a health-care provider who are motivated by a commitment to improve health and well-being of individuals in our community.
Hillview uses a large public room, a greenhouse bay and other work space to provide community education and expand collaborative efforts and outreach. The building design will give people, including the elderly and people with physical limitations, easy access to Hillview to learn about growing, preparing and preserving nutritious foods. The center includes not only Hillview programs but also WTC classes, with a series of greenhouses for Hillview’s organic plants, as well as the combination of organic and traditional agriculture methods and sustainable practices that Western teaches. Vegetables, annuals, perennials and grasses will be used in the school’s cafeteria and culinary arts programs. Others will be rooted in downtown planters and other locations, and still others will be available to the public during a spring sale.