UK Celebrates New College Of Agriculture Alumni Plaza
University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto, CAFE Dean Nancy Cox and former dean Scott Smith were on hand to cut the ribbon. Also included in the dedication ceremony were Kevin Kreide, Physical Plant Division director; Boyd Sewe, landscape architecture student; and Ramona Fry, principal at element design and project manager for the plaza renovation. Fry and design team members, Liz Piper and Mark Arnold are alumni of the college’s Department of Landscape Architecture.
“The completion of our Alumni Plaza is cause for celebration — celebration of our college alumni, celebration of our students and celebration of our threefold land-grant mission of teaching, research and extension,” Cox said.
The diversity, beauty and seasonality of Kentucky’s agriculture inspired the plaza’s design. The plantings, in raised beds, are not just aesthetically pleasing, but have the practical function of providing spatial separation and controlling surface runoff.
Along with agricultural plantings, a “demo forest” was planted, using 13 potentially blight-resistant sapling American chestnut trees 1.0 and 50 pure American chestnuts, which have started to sprout from planted nuts. The trees were donated by The American Chestnut Foundation, which has a breeding program that strives to restore the American chestnut to the Appalachian Mountains.
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