Sustainability enhancement projects have been identified with recommendations for renovations and maintenance for EWU’s campus landscape. The series of icons references the implementation of specific Master Plan Principles within each project.
Built in 1905, the One Room Schoolhouse, formally known as the Jore School, was found in the woods near Newport, Washington. It was relocated to EWU and restored with care and attention to historical accuracy. The Schoolhouse represents EWU’s beginnings in 1890 as the first institution in Washington for teacher instruction.
While the building is historically accurate, the campus landscape does not reflect the landscape vernacular of the region’s original schools and homesteads. The project converts traditional irrigated turf grass to prairie grasses and forbs for pollinators and demonstrates prairie restoration within the campus core. The irrigation system is modified to provide functional control of the irrigation around the building site. The prairie restoration and irrigation modification will reduce water use and long term maintenance. The hardscape walls and foundation planting will be strategically modified to integrate shrubs and native perennials that were common to Eastern Washington homesteads. Native plants include native lupine, sticky geranium, arrowleaf balsamroot, camas, and indian blanketflower, among others. Introduced historic plants include Russian sage and other adapted plant species.
Enhancement Strategy:
Small lawn areas are typically inefficiently irrigated and difficult to effectively maintain. Curves and narrow strips generally result in irrigation overspray onto walks, wasting water. Reducing irrigated turf in these areas can reduce water use, the need for fertilizer applications, and weekly mowing.
Description: Remove irrigated grass, modify irrigation, and plant with native and adapted plants from campus plant list.
Enhancement Strategy:
The existing lawn area around the Tawanka Commons entry is generally small, inefficiently irrigated, and difficult to effectively maintain.
Description: The entry can be enhanced with the removal of turf grass, resulting in reduced water use and sustainable identity. Remove irrigated grass, modify irrigation, and plant with native and adapted plants from campus plant list.
Description: Remove irrigated grass, modify irrigation, and plant with native and adapted plants from campus plant list.
Enhancement Strategy:
Many existing lawn areas around parking lots are narrow, include stormwater swales, and are generally inefficiently irrigated and difficult to effectively maintain.
Description: Many parking areas provide an initial impression of EWU. The impression and parking lot can be enhanced with the removal of turf grass, resulting IN reduced water use and sustainable identity. Remove irrigated grass, modify irrigation, and plant with native and adapted plants from campus plant list.
Enhancement Strategy:
The corner of 6th Street and ‘F’ Street is one of the most important opportunity locations on campus to reinforce EWU’s identify. Students from the surrounding neighborhoods enter the campus and use the main promenade and Sustainability Spine to access the core of campus.
Description: Install a new EWU monument, similar in scale to the one located at the Child Care Center. This main entrance to the campus circulation system is enhanced with the monument and low water use plantings. Remove irrigated grass, modify irrigation, and plant with native and adapted plants from campus plant list.
Enhancement Strategy:
The North Washington Gateway is the most important and visible identity gateways for commuter students, faculty, visitors, and sports fans.
Description: Enhance the landscape around the monument to reflect EWU’s commitment to the Prairie Restoration and incorporation of sustainable strategies on campus. The introduction of the prairie landscape type sets the landscape language for connections between the overall Prairie Restoration and the prairie elements on campus.
Enhancement Strategy:
The Kennedy Library and its grand staircase with flanking ramps is the western terminus of the Arevalo Student Mall. A low wall with “Eastern Washington University” is the eastern terminus. This low wall is separated from the mall by a sunken seating area with concrete steps. The mall is a tremendous space for student gatherings throughout the year with opportunities to set up tables and tents for education and outreach.
Description: The Kennedy Library staircase is in need of structural and accessibility renovations. These renovations are in preliminary design and could incorporate improvements to the art streams’ mechanical systems.
Enhancement Strategy:
EWU’s Prairie Restoration project is a one of kind, ambitious project that will dedicate a third of the campus land and resources for students to actively participate in a real-world, multidisciplinary project designed to restore a threatened ecosystem in our region. This major sustainability initiative will restore 120 acres of campus land to its native prairie habitat. In addition to giving students countless learning and research opportunities, the project benefits the environment for the entire region.
Developed in cooperation with representatives from area Native communities, this project will create a model for boosting regional biodiversity while establishing an educational and recreational space that connects visitors to a long-lost landscape.
Enhancement Strategies: