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To increase awareness of its academic experience and the importance of the outdoors to education, William Rainey Harper College undertook a master plan with extensive landscaped elements. Before the work, few building projects at the college included any landscape or hardscape enhancements, leaving it with only a few shade and evergreen trees and unadorned concrete sidewalks. In 1997, Harper College’s president commissioned a master plan that called for new standards for exterior improvements to the 200-acre campus. Following a successful entrance road project in 1999, the project blossomed in scope. Working with the lead architect and a team of engineers, artists and educators, the school’s first-ever landscape architect incorporated new sculpture, sustainable storm-water detention, new site lighting and signage.
Buildings feature new entry plazas and enhanced courtyards. Tree plantings, restored prairie meadows and planted swales now serve as labs for biology students as well as biofilters for runoff. An art walk and arboretum highlight sculptures and various tree species. The improvements also provide for universal accessibility for the school’s diverse student body. Transformed from its formerly introverted appearance, the campus offers outdoor places for student interaction, learning and enjoyment, setting a benchmark for the way public institutions utilize land.
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