Smartville Garden at Enota Multiple Intelligence Academy - which has been the center of some controversy the past few months - won the Judge’s Choice Award and a Grand Award at this year's Georgia Landscape Awards.
Only Grand Award winning projects can be considered for Judges’ Choice Award. Smartville earned the Grand Award in the Design/Build/Installation: Commercial category.
“The Judges’ Choice is a very exclusive award,” said Mary Kay Woodworth, Georgia Urban Ag Council Executive Director. “Only projects that enter a Grand Award are considered for Judges’ Choice – and Smartville Garden was immediately and unanimously selected by our panel of judges. The attendees at the UAC GALA Dinner agreed wholeheartedly; the reaction when viewing this awesome, inspiring project was electric. Truly a great landscape project in its own right, but more so a shining example of what an educational garden and landscape should be.”
According to a news release, the UAC, the sponsor of the awards, promotes professionalism, adherence to industry standards and education and its annual GALA program honors projects that meet all three goals.
When plans surfaced more than a year ago to tear down and replace the existing Enota school complex with the possibility of uprooting the garden, its supporters launched a months-long campaign to save it. Eventually, the school board approved a plan that calls for the garden to be uprooted and relocated.
