Brit Sharon / Roundup
The landscaping design presentation included a list of 46 new plants that will be planted on campus at yesterday’s last Pierce College Council meeting before summer break in the College Services Building Conference Room.
In 2004 the plant list was updated on the Master Plan with the intention of integrating more native plants, materials, and sustainable design principles to the campus.
The original concept for the campus was to break it down into zones. The zones include the garden, the core part of campus, the hills, and the farm.
The core area of campus, which includes all the major buildings, will have a more formal feel to it and within the farm zone, the plant detail will become more rustic and casual.
The objective of updating the Master Plan was to reduce the water usage on the landscape, select native plants that were California friendly, and to reduce the maintenance the plants would add.
With the new update to the Master Plan, the committee of architects working on the project decided to incorporate a framework around the campus.
“A framework was added to the Master Plan because the committee felt that we needed to combine the college,” said Matilde Rayes, of Landscapes Architects. “Within that framework we selected trees what were natives species. We also gave flexibility to the design so that the frame zone can come into play, which would just be trees that would connect the entire Master Plan and the entire campus.”
Most of the ornamental plants were removed from the list in order to reduce water usage, yet some were kept in order to keep the themes of some of the gardens. Invasive species were removed completely.
Most of the current plants will be coming out. Some of the healthy tree may stay.
“One of our goals is to pull out all of the lawn and shrub areas in order to reduce the amount of water being used. The idea is to create a more sustainable landscape,” said Richard Berliner, of Berliner and Associates Architecture.
For more information on the Master Plan and to view the document go to faculty.piercecollege.edu/pcc.