2:20 p.m., June 23, 2003--Mentors' Circle, dedicated in the fall of 2001, has received rave reviews from faculty, staff, alumni and visitors to the UD campus. Located between Hullihen Hall, Morris Library and Memorial Hall, and formerly the site of a parking lot, Mentor’s Circle honors the best faculty traditions at UD.
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| Photo by Eric Crossan |
As members of the UD community and guests on campus traverse the area, they can view a series of engraved bricks that bear the names of those who have been honored with Excellence-in-Teaching Awards and Excellence-in-Advising Awards since its inception in 1960.
Dr. Francis Alison, founder of the institution that is now the University of Delaware, also is honored on a pair of bronze plaques placed at the entrance gates to the circle.
While officially dedicated to honor teaching excellence, Mentors' Circle has won professional recognition as well. The Delaware Nursery and Landscape Association (DNLA) named it as a winner of its 2002 Landscape Award in recognition of design excellence, plant selection and installation of an outstanding landscape.
DNLA, organized in 1973 as a nonprofit association of growers, garden centers, landscape designers, contractors and suppliers, is dedicated to the betterment and promotion of the green industry in Delaware. Its mission is to advance the common interests of its members and to promote, and enhance the quality of the products and skills of the green industry.
Tom Taylor, landscape engineer in Facilities Planning and Construction, designed and supervised construction of Mentors' Circle and accepted the award on behalf of the University at the Delaware Horticulture Industry Expo in Dover.
In his remarks, Taylor said, “I’m very excited about receiving the award and very grateful to President David P. Roselle, the administration and my superiors for their confidence in me to design and build this landscape.” He added that the project idea, conceived by Roselle in the fall of 1999, incorporated design criteria that addressed safety issues, improved handicapped access to Morris Library and streamlined pedestrian traffic flow.
Taylor said other goals included the creation of an interesting and unique outdoor space that would combine the elements of The Grove (a two-acre site near Alison Hall), as well as site plans by Marian Coffin, the original landscape architect for the UD campus.
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| Tom Taylor, landscape engineer: “The Mentors’ Circle project was the ultimate achievement in my career at the University….”
Photo by Kathy Atkinson
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According to Taylor, walkways were designed to accommodate all angles of pedestrian traffic and to avoid the need for installing additional walkways in the future.
Offsetting the walkways are a series of circles that maintain the concept of the area, which was formerly known as Hullihen Circle, while adhering to the geometric design of Ms. Coffin’s original schemes. Also incorporated in the plan are a disguised fire lane, new drainage system, irrigation, brick walls and piers, lighting and benches, as well as a sculpture by Nancy Reynolds, a distinguished artist who also serves on UD’s Trustee Visiting Committee on Architecture.
“Efforts were made to incorporate existing plants and utilize native plant species suitable to the site with a landscape theme that crossed from formal to natural settings, “ Taylor said.
DNLA’s Landscape Award is not the first award for the campus landscape. In 1996, the University was recognized for landscaping at The Grove. Landscape Management magazine named UD as one of its “LM 100” campuses for its landscape management.
With more than 28 years at the UD, Taylor said, “The Mentors’ Circle project was the ultimate achievement in my career at the University, and again I am grateful for all of the opportunities that have been made available for me to work with the campus landscape.”
Article by Jerry Rhodes
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