Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Performing and Visual Arts Center Complex corridor recently received the Merit Award for outstanding design and professional achievement from the Georgia chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
The award acknowledges the contributions of landscape architectural consultant ECOS Environmental Design, Inc., as well as UGA’s Office of University Architects, the Physical Plant’s grounds department and the Office of Sustainability.
The landscape created more than two acres of new greenspace on East Campus in an area that was once a parking lot but was removed in 2007, in part, to make room for the new Lamar Dodd School of Art. With more than 400 native trees, the greenspace facilitates pedestrian circulation, providing connections between the arts complex, Joe Frank Harris Commons, the Ramsey Student Center and East Campus Village housing.
The project also received the 2008 Stormwater Steward Award from Athens-Clarke County. The Lamar Dodd School of Art has a 3,400-square-foot green roof that minimizes storm water runoff. In other areas rainwater spills into a stone-filled basins, rain gardens and a large underground cistern to be used in landscape watering.
Additional efforts are underway to improve the Lily Branch stream through the construction of a storm water wetland to cleanse and slow runoff from the watershed, the re-introduction of native plants and the creation of pedestrian pathways near the creek.
