Advancing the field of community building has been one of Horrigan?s intentions. She has made many contributions to civic planning, helping to create richer places for community experience. Her work falls into two main categories, as part of Cornell-based design practice and outreach, and as action-research design projects. ||Horrigan?s award-winning design and execution of the Ithaca Hospicare Gardens in Ithaca, New York, provides a peaceful, sylvan setting for the terminally ill, their families, and their caretakers, through its powerful integration between facility and site. ||The Trumansburg Main Street, Engaged Community Project t Project, falls into the category of an action-research design project, whereby from the start, Horrigan engaged participation by the community as a cornerstone of the project. Horrigan incorporated research and reflection on how to engage a community in civic projects, as opposed to top-down decision making about what a community needs. The Main Street Project broke ground in 2006 and continues to transform downtown Trumansburg into a more pedestrian-friendly and revitalized atmosphere. ||Through this project and others Horrigan has brought people with vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints together to discuss and decide upon the priorities of their communities, and so has helped to build community while transforming landscape.