Started in 1981 Normand Valle and Reynaldo Arenas began cleaning the garden. mission is to "provide a safe, green haven for all people, but especially for children who lived in an inhospitable environment."
Parsons DESIS (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) Lab is a research laboratory created in 2009 at The New School in New York City. DESIS Lab works at the intersection of strategic and service design, management, and social theory, applying interdisciplinary expertise in problem setting and problem solving to sustainable practices and social innovation.
Parsons DESIS Lab promotes funded research projects with local partners resulting in workshops, studios toolkits, exhibitions and publications that articulate the practice of social change through design-enable sustainable community initiatives.