Funds for the project were donated by neighbors of a family whose disabled daughter attended PS 79 and recently passed away.

The project is part of the summer course "Engineering Design via Community Service Projects", a summer high school program run by the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and the School of Continuing Education at Columbia University that attracts high school students interested in engineering and applied sciences, computer science, applied physics, and applied mathematics. This four-week, intensive course challenges high school students to develop an original engineering design by working on real, socially oriented projects for real clients selected from the not-for-profit sector around Columbia University.

Our students are now working closely with the school's principal, administration, faculty, students, and therapists to design this unique greenhouse. They are consulting with donors and architects as well as making field trips to other New York City greenhouses, including those at Columbia, a local hospital, an urban farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. In the program, students work in teams, each tackling a different aspect of this unique design challenge: the greenhouse's structure, custom work areas, plant and soil types, water management, lighting, heating, storage, and special gardening tools for the disabled.

New York City Public School 79, located at 120th Street and Madison Avenue in Harlem, serves the needs of high school students with severe physical and cognitive disabilities.

Harlem News, July 26, 2006