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New flowers add to the campus landscape plans

Written by Johnathan Silver, The Shorthorn staff

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 06:18 PM

Students walk by recently planted flowers outside the University Center on Monday. The flowers are a part of the Campus Master Plan with the goal to make the campus greener in the next 20 years. (The Shorthorn: Morganne Stewart)

Facilities Management is planting new flowers around campus to improve the university’s image and further the Campus Master Plan.

New planting spots include the University Center mall’s west side and the Physical Education Building’s outdoor pool, but old spots will get fresh flowers as well.

The university hopes the changes will improve the campus’ appearance and tackle sustainability issues, said Larry Harrison, Facilities Management Operations associate director.

So far UTA spent about $75,000 in landscaping improvements across campus in fiscal year 2008-09, which began Sept. 1 and ends August 31. This includes trees, plants, shrubs, mulch, pave stones and labor costs. The total grounds maintenance budget, including landscaping improvements, is $856,859.

“The goal is to achieve a comprehensive campus landscape fabric that is practical and cost-effective to maintain,” according to the Campus Master Plan update and Design Guidelines 2005–2020 executive summary. “The overall principal of the campus over the next 20 years will be to turn grey to green in order to mitigate the amount of impervious cover.”

Upgrading would have no downside because campus appearance may increase enrollment, said Abhilash Menon, mechanical engineering graduate student.

“When parents and students come to campus, different flowers and different trees may change their minds,” he said.

Nursing sophomore Yewande Adalumo said the colors are welcoming.

“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “It would definitely attract more people who are green and for the environment.”

On the surface level, the flowers may look nice but aren’t always environmentally efficient, said David Hopman, landscape architecture assistant professor.

“Plants may be pretty, but can be energy hogs,” he said.

Hopman suggested 23 to 25 plant types for landscaping to Facilities Management. From those, three are incorporated above the rest.

“There are three plants that I really want used,” Hopman said. “Lindheimer’s Muhly, Coralberry and Carolina Buckthorn.”

The professor likes the three because they are native and drought-tolerant, meaning they don’t need water to live. Hopman said he likes the idea because it could reduce water use, but he worries that people like color more. Many native plants don’t have exotic colors, but making them a part of the university environment is important, he said.

“On one level it’s complicated,” he said. “On another it’s common sense.”

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Comments (1)

1 Pretty elephants!
Written by Vinodh Valluri, on 07-01-2009 09:14
Dr. Hopman has perfectly spotted the fallacy of coloring our campus 'green' with many pretty flowers. New plants on a sustainable campus can ONLY be native, low maintenance, environmentally efficient species that enhance campus sustainability by protecting top soil, requiring very little water and, and then, as a bonus, adding to the beauty of our campus. Of course, the extent to which student enrollment is affected (or not) due to these visual aspects can be directly discerned using a survey of prospective/ incoming students. The only thing to worry until September will be to throw precious water in this killing heat to the pretty 'elephants' everyday!

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 August 2009 10:34 AM )

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