The memorial garden was one of the subjects at the Facilities Steering Committee’s discussion on Wednesday. The garden was initially planned because the trees displaced from the memorial plaza and the “X” pathway needed to be relocated as a result of the installation of portables on the quad.
All the trees from the memorial plaza, which was created for Paly alumnus Sherwood Hoogs and former physics teacher Andrea Erzberger, will be moved to the new memorial garden.
Mary Gordon, a landscape architect involved in the project, said that the project would be helpful for the students, faculty and the community.
“I think it [the garden] offers a very eminent opportunity to have something created on campus that will invite areas for students to gather and be a casual space for meeting a friend or a group,” Gordon said. “Or as [the committee] was discussing–it’s possible–some classroom use.”
Gordon envisions the garden to function not only as a meeting place for students and classes but also as an area to link the campus together.
[[nid:26301]]“It’s some beginning of continuity for the campus,” she said.
Gordon believes that the garden will be a step in the right direction towards fixing the landscape disturbance from the portables.
Though there was no vote at the facilities meeting to approve the plan, the project was met with support at the committee. However, some expressed concern about the pipelines near the area where the garden is planned to be built.
“We have not done anything to change that [the plumbing situation] at all,” Gordon said. “I think there’s some gas and there [are] also some major plumbing shut-off valves and so forth that occur out in this area, and it would be very expensive to relocate those,” she added.
However, Gordon said that all the gas and plumbing valves are protected, although she noted that this makes the garden less attractive.
Aside from the trees and benches, the garden will have a special type of pavement that Gordon calls “very sustainable” and will allow water to drain through instead of collecting.
Even so, the project is much shorter and less elaborate than the two other projects that the committee discussed, which dealt with remodeling the stadium and building a performing arts center.
“We want it to have a ‘green’ feel and do it simply and make it useful,” Gordon said.
For more information about facilities meetings, click here.