Designed by: Jules Bruck, PhD, APLD, Jon Cox, and a University of Deleware team of graduate and undergraduate students
Over the past several months, Bruck, a UD faculty member, and Cox, a UD instructor and former Tyler Arboretum gardener, have worked on a collaborative design project to create a comprehensive master plan for a three-acre Sustainable Learning Center on the grounds of Tyler Arboretum, in Media, PA. This project was conceived last fall when Cox and Bruck teamed up after meeting at a function sponsored by the Delaware Design Institute.
The nine undergraduate and graduate students students Bruck and Cox selected came from landscape horticulture, wildlife ecology and art disciplines. After site visits and a preliminary design of an organic vegetable garden that was installed last spring, Bruck and Cox hosted a large design charette and invited external landscape architects and designers to participate. From this process came many creative ideas, including a layout for vehicular and pedestrian circulation and a unique rain harvesting system under an entry courtyard that will be used to water the vegetable garden. Pictured is a pump and its solar panel, which doubles as a bat house.
The process of developing a master plan for Tyler beyond the initial brainstorming phases conducted during a semester-long class continued well into the summer. After several iterations, Bruck and Cox presented Tyler with a final master plan that they will now use for development purposes. Tyler’s goal is to find funding for different sections of the garden, and to that end Bruck will continue on the project to help Tyler determine cost projections and phasing opportunities. Pictured above is the main focus of the garden, a troll house with a green roof.
This project has resulted in a scholarly paper, in review, and an abstract of the project was accepted for presentation into the EcoBalance 2010 Conference in Tokyo, Japan. In addition, the student-designed and -built components of the Tyler garden, once displayed at AGDAY in Newark, DE, led to the idea of designing an educational display in the 2011 Philadelphia Flower Show.
Plans are under way for the 18×24-ft. show exhibit that will highlight the importance and ease of installing and utilizing rain-harvesting systems in home gardens.
Learn more about the project — including its digital counterpart on the popular online site Second Life — in a video presentation here.
This project is part of the September “Member of the Month” profile created
by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. For more information, visit www.apld.com.
