University Times

Comparing the grounds of land grant schools such as Penn State or Ohio State to an urban university like Pitt is like comparing apples and oranges. On the one hand are institutions with an abundance of green space and even agricultural schools; on the other are universities hemmed in by concrete, stone and asphalt. And in Pitt's case, too, are those ever-present hills.

But while it may not be fair to compare, it is tough to overlook excellence. The Professional Grounds Maintenance Society found it so tough, in fact, that this year it finally gave up trying to compare urban and rural universities and awarded Pitt the society's first-ever special merit award for the "beauty of its central campus." In announcing the award, which was presented to Pitt's assistant grounds manager Conrad Neuner at the society's annual conference in Fort Worth, Tex., last month, the judges cited Pitt "for working with the combined challenges of a very dense urban campus and many steep slopes. The selection and use of plant materials on the slopes is combined with an attempt to simultaneously maximize beauty on the central campus." Institutions, businesses, corporations and governmental bodies from 17 states submitted entries in the competition. Pitt was the only university to receive a special merit award.

Judges were particularly impressed by the low maintenance landscaping that Pitt's grounds crews began planting on the slopes of the upper campus four years ago and the way they have been used to tie together the campus as a whole.

"This was the fourth time that I submitted an entry," says Neuner. "They were very impressed every time I submitted, but they didn't have a category for urban campuses. They had university and college campuses as a single group and we just could not compete." Along with making the campus more pleasing to the eye, Neuner's landscape projects have helped to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in upkeep. Low-maintenance plantings on the upper campus have allowed the grounds crew to absorb the loss of three positions without adversely affecting performance.

Senior grounds manager Edward Gruber estimates that the low maintenance plantings have saved the University $60,000 to $90,000 annually in mowing and other upkeep costs over the past four years. A total of 21 full-time grounds keepers and 10 to 20 seasonal student grounds keepers now take care of Pitt's 132 acres of green space. "It has been an evolutionary process," says Gruber of the change in Pitt's grounds. "Conrad started with flower beds on the lower campus. They were gradually increased in numbers because we don't have that much green space and we like to get the most out of it. The flowers draw attention to the little bit of green space we have." The idea of planting flowers on campus started with Pitt's bicentennial celebration in 1987. "We made an enormous flower bed over at the student union and that was the first time a planting was ever done on campus," says Neuner.

The bicentennial garden at the William Pitt Union drew such favorable reaction that the following year grounds crews planted 10,000 tulips around the union. "Before that, we could plant every flower that we were going to put on campus in four hours," says Neuner. "Now it takes two weeks." Flower plantings on campus have grown to the point where grounds crews planted 25,000 annuals last spring. The cost was only about $2,200, according to Gruber. "That money goes a long way," he notes, "when students come on campus with their parents and they look around and say, 'Boy, this campus is a lot nicer than I though it was.'" Since Pitt has such a small amount of green space, Gruber does not envision a great increase in the number of campus flower beds. But he says the variety of plants will change. In particular, more perennials will be planted, since maintenance costs on them are lower than on annuals. Among the grounds depart-ment's biggest new projects will be trees. The department plans to bring in outside experts to evaluate the condition of trees on campus and to plant more trees along streets, and different types and sizes of trees.

Another important project will be an inventory of plants. Knowledge acquired during the inventory will be used to maintain a consistency in plants throughout the campus. One plant that will remain, though, is the canna lily, those tall, dark red lilies that were visible this year in front of the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Cathedral of Learning, among other areas. Gruber says: "We've had more comments about those particular flowers than any other flowers we've planted. Everybody loves them."

–Mike Sajna