4C THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KANSAS RELAYS
THURSDAY. APRIL 21, 2005
Green trucks, green' thumbs
By Paige Worthy, Jayplaywriter
Tulips open up outside of Watson Library Saturday afternoon. Photos by Kit Leffle
Spring comes to life on campus
Every
Every spring, students at the University of Kansas weave around maintenance trucks that hop over the curbs onto the packed sidewalks. Uniformed workers armed with garden tools and hoses spill from the trucks' doors and scrape to various areas along Jayhawk Boulevard. These are some of the busiest times for Facilities Operations landscaping crews. They work full time throughout the year to keep campus beautiful, but they seem especially busy around the time when students break out their flip-flops and visitors roam campus with the help of backward-walking tour guides.
6 Jayplay 04.21.05
The laborers are now in full bloom. Magnolias and white-blossomed pear trees offer shade and sweet smells. On Fraser lawn, students often study, relax or play Frisbee on the bright green grass. Beds in front of Strong Hall and Smith Hall, as well as around the Chi Omega fountain, are covered with dense blankets of red and yellow tulips. Dave Vander Valde, director of the University's nuclear molecular resonance laboratory, takes photographs that he posts on his personal Web site. He saves his favorite time of year is during spring, when the tulips are out. He also loves campus just before Commencement, when it's especially "spiffed up."
All these landscaping and beautification efforts are part of a "landscape master plan," which is part of Chancellor Robert Hemenway's vision for campus. Hemenway saw the need to create a plan to preserve Mount Oread's appearance and appeal to students and visitors, says Warren Corman, a university architect who helped draw up
the plan. A beautiful campus is often a huge selling point for prospective students, Corman says. "Over the last 40 or 50 years, the campus had gotten kind of worn out from the use of it, with thousands of people here every day." By fall 2000, shortly after Hemenway established the idea, the plan materialized into a $22 million initiative that would depend on monetary gifts from alumni and donors. In 2002, the family of former Chancellor Deane Malott donated a million dollars to build a landscaped entryway into the University at 18th Street and Iowa Street. Otherwise, donations have been slow to start coming in, Corman says, because KU Endowment has been focusing largely on its "KU First" campaign until only recently. "We've had a lot of offers to buy a few trees, but we haven't had any $5 million offers," he says.
The master plan has three parts, which will be carried out as more money is given: design, signage and maintenance, says Peg Livingood, a landscape architect who works in the University's design and construction management office. The design aspect covers campus development and determines which plants will grow best in certain areas. Livingood, who has expertise in site planning and land use, helps carry out the design aspect. Signage has to do with everything from street signs on campus that help direct students and visitors to larger projects such as the Malott gateway.
The maintenance aspect, however, is where Facilities Operations workers come in. They set the master plan into motion, working from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to maintain the appearance of campus. Mike Lang, Facilities Operations landscape manager, was