ASU Mesa, AZ: academy campus that embraces the desert

After reading my recent posts well-nigh the Scottsdale Xeriscape Demonstration Garden in addition to Cavalliere Park, both inwards Scottsdale, Arizona, y'all powerfulness live reaching Corten in addition to gabion overload. But the house I volition demonstrate y'all inwards this postal service is so well-designed that I promise you'll stick alongside me. It's Arizona State University's Polytechnic Campus inwards Mesa.

The primary campus of Arizona State University (ASU) is inwards Tempe. It's a sprawling site the size of a pocket-size town (642 acres). According to Wikipedia, "76,844 students [were] enrolled inwards at to the lowest degree i degree on campus inwards autumn 2016." That's a staggering number!

In add-on to the primary campus, in that location are 4 other campuses inwards the Phoenix tube area. One of them is the Polytechnic Campus in Mesa. It opened inwards the autumn of 1996 on the grounds of the old William Air Force Base. In 2009, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects helped plow 21 acres inwards the pump of the campus from a concrete wasteland into what it is today: a lush desert oasis.

Mass plantings of palo verde (Parkinsonia sp.). To encounter them inwards flower, read this post yesteryear Pam Penick

The goal of the project was to "transform acres of asphalt, concrete, in addition to river stone into an academic, social in addition to ecological campus hub that embraces in addition to sustains desert life". But the removed materials were non precisely discarded, they were reused equally much equally possible. Concrete paving was repurposed for seating elements, retaining walls in addition to pathways. Existing river stone was used inwards gabions in addition to for freestanding in addition to retaining walls. Mass plantings of drought-tolerant plants practise shade in addition to inviting places for socializing.

This projection was so successful that enrollment at the Mesa campus has increased yesteryear twenty pct equally to a greater extent than in addition to to a greater extent than students are attracted to this real particular campus inwards the Sonoran Desert. In 2012, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects received an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for their work.

Christine Ten Eyck's fellowship also designed the Scottsdale Xeriscape Demonstration Garden, in addition to y'all volition encounter a similar aesthetic inwards the photos below.

Desert spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri) and palo verde

Mesquite in addition to prickly pears

More desert spoons (Dasylirion wheeleri)

Yucca thompsoniana. The description from the ASU website is correct on the money: "Yucca thompsoniana looks similar a smaller hybridized version of Y. brevifolia [Joshua tree] in addition to Y. rostrata."

The glass-and-steel architecture of the LEED Gold-certified Academic Complex and Ten Eyck's landscape blueprint are a perfect marriage, non precisely visually but also ecologically. They're focused on conserving resources, maximizing sustainability, in addition to connecting students in addition to staff to the desert instead of shutting them off from it.

In spite of their scale, I flora the outdoor spaces so inviting that I idea I was inwards somebody's somebody garden.

Desert spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri)

Does anybody recognize this aloe species?

NOID aloes in addition to palo blanco (Mariosousa willardiana)

Another peachy house for socializing

Ample places to sit down invite people to linger

Doesn't this palo verde aspect awesome against the steel facade?

Corten arbor alongside Lady Banks roses

The mass-planted succulent on the left is candelilla (Euphorbia antisyphylitica), native to southern New Mexico, western Texas in addition to northern Mexico

I'm proud to acknowledge that I'm a gabion addict

It was likewise encounter majority plantings of aloes when I would convey expected agaves

Texas ebony (Ebenopsis ebano)

Too bad in that location wasn't a bench here. Otherwise I would convey sat hither for a while.

Slipper flora (Pedilanthus macrocarpus), native to northwestern United Mexican United States of America in addition to closely related to euphorbias (some taxonomists listing it Euphorbia lomelii). Criminally underused inwards landscaping, inwards my opinion. In my sense it's hardier than people give it credit for.

More aloes

The courtyard inwards the lastly fix of photos below had majority plantings of Aloe barbadensis in addition to palo blanco (Mariosousa williardiana), an acacia from Sonora, Mexico. It's i of my favorite trees because of its graceful weeping branches in addition to its dramatic white bark that is constantly peeling. The specimens inwards this courtyard are perfect examples of why I'm so fond of this species.