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3. Background
Southern California's naturally occurring landscapes range from high desert to coastal sage scrub and chaparral to live oak woodland. All these are well adapted to the region's low annual rainfall (Figure 3.0.1); however, most populated areas in the region feature landscapes modeled after those of the American East Coast, where rainfall is much more abundant. As immigrants from the eastern United States and other more water-rich areas settled Southern California, they imposed their ideals of proper landscape on their new surroundings. The transformation of the arid natural landscape was made possible by massive importation of water from the Colorado River and Northern California. Large-scale water projects such as the dams and aqueducts that supply Southern California played a vital role throughout the American West.
Figure 3.0.1. Southern California's Annual Average Precipitation (Inches) during 1961-1990 (Oregon Climate Service).
3.1. Water Use in Western America
Perhaps the most striking difference between the eastern and western halves of the United States is the fact that the former receives an average of at least twenty inches of precipitation a year, and the latter far less than that. As Marc Reisner writes in Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water:
Any place with less than twenty inches of rainfall is hostile terrain to a farmer depending solely on the sky, and a place that receives seven inches or less--as Phoenix, Reno, and El Paso do--is arguably no place to inhabit at all. Everything depends on the manipulation of water--on capturing it behind dams, storing it, and rerouting it in concrete rivers over distances of hundreds of miles. Were it not for a century and a half of messianic effort towards that end, the West as we know it would not exist (Reisner, 3).
Reisner's book highlights the important role played by human intervention and especially technological innovation, in distributing water in the western United States.
While benefits of water projects are numerous and readily apparent, the costs are equally dramatic, even in the short term. Adverse social effects include forced relocation of people, often ethnic minorities such as Native Americans, living near water project sites (Reisner, 186). For instance, the damming of the Colorado, the river that supplies the majority of Southern California's water, has all but destroyed the culture of the Cocopa, who originally inhabited its delta (Leslie, 42).
Large-scale water projects are even more expensive in the long-term; ecological costs, for example, are staggering. Environmental damage caused by dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts includes habitat destruction in river valleys, damage to aquatic ecosystems, increases in river salinity, and irrigation-related pollution. Dams flood valleys and disrupt rivers' natural flows, along with interrupting fish migration (Postel, 68). Reservoirs formed on dammed rivers, especially those in hot climates, lose vast quantities of water to evaporation (the Colorado up to a third of its flow), and the water that remains in their reservoirs becomes more saline as a result. Although changes in salinity vary among rivers depending on evaporation rates and the soil through which they flow (many soils in the West are classified as saline or alkaline), increases are never beneficial (Reisner, 459-465). When used for irrigation purposes, saline water slowly poisons cropland; elsewhere it corrodes pipes and kills aquatic organisms (Leslie, 42).
Toxic chemicals in agricultural drainage water are another serious problem. In California's San Joaquin Valley preventing further damage from agricultural chemicals would cost an estimated $40 million per year, and the cost of cleaning up existing pollution is still unknown (Postel, 69). Finally, no matter what their effects, large-scale water projects are only temporary solutions to water scarcity; reservoirs gradually fill with sediment. Loss of reservoir volume due to sediment build-up can be as high as 1% per year (Reisner, 473). Most importantly, reservoirs create the illusion that water is plentiful, which compounds existing problems by discouraging conservation.
An example of the dangers of wasteful water use is the fact that much of the American West's transformation was made possible by the use of nonrenewable groundwater. Vast underground lakes such as the Ogallala aquifer beneath South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and parts of New Mexico have been recklessly drained for agricultural purposes (Reisner, 435-440). When drought diminished surface water supplies in California's Central Valley in the late 1980's and early 1990's, water tables in seven Central Valley counties dropped 2-10 meters in less than 5 years (Postel, 89). As groundwater levels fall, the specter of water shortage looms over the American West despite the best efforts of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, who built hundreds of dams all over the region during the first half of the 20th century (Reisner, 145-213).
3.2. Water use in Southern California and Claremont
Harvey Mudd College purchases its water from the Southern California Water Company (SCWC), a subsidiary of the American States Water Company. SCWC provides just over half of its water to the Claremont Customer Service Area of the city of Claremont and parts of Pomona, Montclair, and Upland from their 25 wells in the Chino, Pomona, and Upper Claremont Heights water basins (Southern California Water Company, [2000a]). SCWC supplements their local groundwater supplies with water purchased from Three Valleys Municipal Water District (TVMWD) (Three Valleys Municipal Water District). TVMWD purchases water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWDSC), with whom they began contracting in 1950. The amount of water MWDSC sold to TVMWD in the 2001 fiscal year demonstrates the variation in seasonal demand, as the volume of sales peaks during the summer months and dips during the winter (Figure 3.2.1). In the winter, when demand is lower, water is put into storage facilities for later use. Very little of the water sold by TVMWD is used for agricultural irrigation. MWDSC water sales to TVMWD from 1979 to 2001 varied greatly from year to year (Figure 3.2.2), but an upward trend is apparent (MWDSC [1998]).
Figure 3.2.1. MWDSC water sales to TVMWD for the 2001 fiscal year (MWDSC [2001]).
Figure 3.2.2. MWDSC water sales to TVMWD since 1979 (MWDSC [1998]).
MWDSC, the largest water district in the state, sells water to twelve municipal water districts, fourteen member cities, and one county water authority in the six counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura, Orange, and Riverside. For the 16 million people in this area, about sixty percent of their water comes from the MWDSC. The water district was incorporated in 1928 for the purpose of providing Colorado River water to the cities surrounding Los Angeles. Los Angeles already had its own water supply from the Owens Valley (O'Connor). Today, the district obtains additional water from the California State Water Project (SWP), run by the Department of Water Resources (DWR). The SWP is the largest water project in the country. Its main purpose is to supply water, but it additionally manages programs involving flood control, power generation, recreation, and fish and wildlife enhancement. About half of its water supply comes from Lake Oroville, and the rest is from the San Luis Reservoir, which stores the surplus flow from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The costs for the project are paid for by the thirty public agencies that hold contracts for up to 4.2 million acre-feet of water per year. Thirty percent of this water is used to irrigate farmland; urban, residential, and industrial areas use the remainder. MWDSC has a contract with the SWP for a maximum annual entitlement of 2,011,500 acre-feet of water per year until 2035. While it currently it does not purchase this much, it is projected to do so soon after 2010 (CDWR).
Southern California's policy of importing water from Northern California and the Colorado River has drastically changed these ecosystems. The damming of rivers has devastated natural fisheries throughout the state (Davis). For example, the Sacramento River's winter run of Chinook salmon declined from 120,000 in the 1960's to just 400 in 1997 (Postel, 68). Furthermore, wetland ecosystems, especially those of Mono Lake, have been severely reduced and damaged (Reis [2000b], 10).
Water conservation could prove to be the solution Southern California needs to continue to reliably provide its residents with water. In the MWDSC's service area alone, conservation measures started in 1980 produced a savings of 480,000 acre-feet by 1998, with projected savings by 2020 of 1,072,000 acre feet (MWDSC [2001]). These conservation measures include retrofits of plumbing with low flow fixtures, efficient irrigation and landscape management, and a program that gives water credit to agencies that conserve water (MWDSC [2001]). When compared to many other urban areas in California, Los Angeles residents use less water per day on average (Table 3.2.1). Southern California has saved about 710,000 acre-feet per year through water conservation programs and water recycling programs that reuse runoff water. This is enough to supply the entire city of Los Angeles (MWDSC [2001]). Besides conservation, a number of other factors influence urban water use, including economic, sociopolitical, technological, demographic, and climactic (Table 3.2.2) (Prasifka, 67).
Table 3.2.1. Daily water use for residents of Los Angeles, Oakland, Fresno, and Sacramento (MWDSC [2001]). City Average number of gallons used per day per resident Los Angeles 155 Oakland 171 Fresno 258 Sacramento 271
Table 3.2.2. The factors that affect urban water use and the categories they fall under. The italicized factors were those focused on as pertaining to the water used for Harvey Mudd College's landscape (Prasifka, 67). Category Factor Economic Assessed sales value of residence Income level Price of water Water-rate structure Width & level of price blocks Sociopolitical Consumer education Consumer preferences, habits, and tastes Cultural constraints or incentives Legal & political constraints Policy variables Technological Allocation of water of different quality to different users Distribution pressure Efficiency of water-using equipment Inspection & repair of faulty plumbing Leak-detection program Supply dependability Demographic Connections to public sewer Construction grading Household size Housing density Irrigated area Population Recreation lake Size of lot Type of housing Climactic Implementation of drought-tolerant landscaping Moisture deficit Precipitation Temperature
The population of Southern California is increasing. This increases the demand for water making it more difficult to provide water for all of Southern California's needs. In fact, some experts warn that a water crisis of equal caliber to our current energy crisis looms in Southern California's future (Officials: Potential Exists for Water Crisis Mirroring Current Power Woes). Hence, landscapes that require large amounts of water will become even more costly to sustain. Xeriscapes, landscapes designed to use little water in arid climates, and regionally appropriate landscapes, featuring native plants and other drought-resistant species, provide a valuable opportunity for water and resource conservation (Postel, 158-9).
3.3. Fertilizer use
A major advance in agricultural technology in the last century has been the use of fertilizers. In particular nitrogen is now used extensively in crop and landscape applications to promote fast growth of plants. Globally the introduction of nitrogen to the environment has had dramatic effects. Humans contribute greater 80 
1012 g N/year to the global nitrogen cycle through nitrogen fixation (via the Haber process) to create fertilizer that is applied to agriculture and landscapes. This is nearly half the amount of nitrogen fixed per year through biological nitrogen fixation. Much of this nitrogen (which is in inorganic form) is leached into groundwater and transported to lakes, rivers and other bodies of water (Schlesinger, 385-386). The ultimate fate of most of this nitrogen is to be deposited into marine waters, where nitrogen is the limiting element to plant growth.
Large nitrogen inputs to bodies of water can lead to eutrophication. Some of the problems related to eutrophication are an increase in phytoplankton production, decrease in light penetration depth, changes in plant community (e.g., loss of seagrasses and increases in macroalgae), and low oxygen concentrations (which can lead to mass mortalities of bivalves and fish) (Valiela, 517-526). Nitrate is also monitored as a drinking water contaminant, as high levels pose health risks to infants of 6 months or less (Skipton and Hay).
3.4. Herbicide and pesticide use
Modern agriculture and landscaping uses a number of pesticides to control unwanted fungus and other plants and pests. In 1995, 2.6 million metric tons of active ingredients were consumed worldwide, with 85% of this going towards agricultural use. Three-fourths of global pesticide use occurs in the developed countries, mainly North America, Western Europe and Japan. The estimated annual pesticide use in the United States during the 1990's was 500,000 metric tons of active ingredients or 20% of global consumption ("Current Pesticide Spectrum, Global Use and Major Concerns"). One fourth of pesticide application in the United States occurs in California alone. In addition, from 1991 to 1998, pesticide use in California rose about 5%. Again, most of these pesticides are used in agriculture production (Liebman).
Pesticides fall into four general categories. Herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and rodenticides kill weeds, fungus, insects, and rodents respectively. Developed countries mainly use herbicides, while developing countries (which currently use only a small amount of pesticides relative to the developed nations, but the volume is growing) are dominated by insecticides (which generally have higher acute toxicities than herbicides) ("Current Pesticide Spectrum, Global Use and Major Concerns").
Widespread use of pesticides can lead to a number of problems such as the development of resistance of target species to the active ingredients in pesticides. Some herbicide resistant weeds found in California include Perennial Ryegrass, California Arrowhead, and Rigid Ryegrass, the last of which is resistant to the active ingredient in the commonly used Round-Up ("Managing Herbicide Resistant Weeds in California"). Pesticides also pose risks to aquatic organisms. Pesticides can unintentionally contaminate water bodies through drift from nearby applications, atmospheric deposition, runoff from treated fields, application error, and illegal use. Once in the water, pesticides can cause many problems. For example, in 1991, a string of fish kills occurred in the bayous of Louisiana where over 1 million fish died after overhead applications of the insecticide Guthion (Benbrook). Pesticides can also harm organisms that are beneficial to plants. For example, earthworms play an important role in ensuring the natural balance of turfgrass. When treated with various concentrations of fungicides, earthworms died in significant numbers (however the exposure rates may not have been what earthworms would experience in soil) (Roark and Dale). Furthermore, pesticide use increases groundwater contamination, food contamination, wildlife, and livestock destruction, loss of natural vegetation and crops, and destruction of pest predators (Pimentel et al. [1991]).
In addition to the environmental effects of pesticides, there are many human health hazards associated with their use. Annually, somewhere around 20,000 accidental pesticide poisonings occur, around 10% of which require hospitalization (Pimentel et al. [1991]). Fifty of these cases result in direct fatalities each year (Pimentel et al. [1991]). Additionally, pesticides are implicated in other human diseases, most notably cancer and sterility: pesticides cause an estimated 6000 cases of cancer each year (Pimentel et al. [1991]). Tests are performed on the active ingredients in pesticides so that the hazards of the product and the precautions one should take when using them can be presented on the labels. However, the tests done to gauge the safety of these chemicals for the Materials Safety Data Sheets have some shortcomings: they are only done on short term, they are not done in combination with other chemicals that may be applied at the same time, inert ingredients are not tested, and they don't test for endocrine and immune system disruption. The demonstrated and possible environmental and health effects of pesticides should be considered when deciding to implement landscapes that require them.
3.5. Energy use
Plants produce energy (food, wood, fossil fuels), and animals consume energy. Humans not only consume plants for food, but are also dependent upon plants and their fossil remains to power cars, light houses, and maintain landscapes (among many other things). We continually consume more energy than plants produce, a situation that ensures that we will eventually run out; we are living in a non-sustainable system (Perry [2000]).
Landscaping practices can be very energy intensive. Keeping exotic species (e.g., turfgrass) alive in the arid Southern California climate requires large inputs of water, fertilizer, and gasoline (to run lawnmowers). Although natural landscapes are self-sustaining, all conventional human-built landscapes require some external energy input, which can vary greatly depending on the type off landscape (Perry [2000]). Landscape choices that reduce energy consumption can not only help (in some small way) to move towards a more sustainable biome, but reduce our own dependence on energy-consuming products, the prices of which may rise in the future as fossil fuel supplies dwindle.
3.6. Claremont and Harvey Mudd College
The Claremont Colleges have not seriously addressed the imminent water crisis facing Southern California, nor have they undertaken to understand the effects of their current landscape practices on resources and the environment. With the exception of recent projects at Pitzer, the Colleges have continued the Southern California trend of manipulating the natural landscape at great financial and environmental expense (Black et al.). When Pomona College was founded in the late 1800's, it was designed to look like the Ivy League schools of the East Coast (Black et al.). Its campus features large areas of turf, non-indigenous trees, and ivy. The founders believed that such a landscape was necessary to promote Pomona as a legitimate institute of higher learning (Black et al.). As the other five colleges were founded, they, too, adopted an East Coast aesthetic.
Harvey Mudd College followed suit when its campus was designed in the late 1950's. The college was founded to educate scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who would graduate with a clear understanding of the effect of their work on society. Unfortunately, the campus grounds contradict these goals in many ways. In Harvey Mudd College: The First Twenty Years, former HMC President Joseph Platt relates that the college's landscape architect firm of Cornell, Bridgers, and Troller "had little to do over the opening years of the college because there were other needs more pressing than landscaping" (Platt, 51). He describes the early campus landscape as follows:
Areas immediately around the buildings were graded and planted to grass. Our students were accustomed, during our first two years of classes, to hiking over rocks between buildings.... However, much of the campus remained as we found it: rocks and chaparral, with an occasional native tree to add stature to the landscape. This was the state of affairs when the college was the beneficiary of a second unsolicited minor miracle (Platt, 51-2).
The "miracle" Platt refers to is the contributions of Victoria Mudd (Mrs. Henry T. Mudd), who took an active role in the landscaping of the college. She designated a trust towards campus landscaping, persuaded San Francisco landscape architect Thomas Church to act as a consultant with Cornell, Bridgers, and Troller, and, along with Marian Garrett, "took a personal interest in seeing to it that our native live oaks and sycamores were preserved wherever possible, that the landscaping was generally simple, easily maintained, and effective, and that the campus developed a pervasive sense of natural beauty" (Platt, 52).
Though born in Boston in 1902, Church grew up in California, absorbing its unique lifestyle and culture. While earning his Master of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, he was awarded a Sheldon Travel Scholarship, allowing him to visit the Mediterranean gardens of Europe. Upon returning, he wrote his Master's thesis on the parallels between the Mediterranean region's lifestyle and landscaping and California's, supporting simple planting plans due to the need for summer irrigation, symbolic areas of lawn, and the use of native and drought tolerant plants for both (Church, xii).
During the first part of his career, Church's designs were based on traditional landscape design principals, much like those found in the historical gardens of Europe; however, by the late 1930's his style had adopted the use of multiple viewpoints (the opposite approach of the central axial line which had dominated traditional practices) and simple planes. The latter ideology is especially important for a campus because its landscape is viewed from every angle as students, faculty, and staff traverse it day in and day out (Church, xiii). Further, "the use of paved surfaces, low-maintenance planting, and preservation of existing mature trees characterize Church's early style and much of his later work" (Church, xii). As the College has no shortage of pavement, lawn (considered low maintenance when compared to other popular garden features, such as rose beds, topiary, etc.), and native trees that predate HMC's founding, clearly these design principals were upheld during Church's consultation on the landscape.
Church's approach to designing a landscape was directed by the site, the architecture, and the client's personality and preferences (Church, xiii). He both believed and founded the school of thought that a garden, "in California at least, could be more or perhaps less than a collection of plants, more than an imitation of historical styles, and that it could be, once again, an art form, expressive of its place, time, and people" (Church, iv). To an institution like HMC, this catering of the landscape to the tenets of the College is integral to the establishment of an all-encompassing reputation. Indeed, the college campus is a uniquely American phenomenon, yet it is indispensable for the well being of an academic institution (Turner).
The predictable climate of California makes the new garden prototype of Church's possible in that rainfall is predictable (one knows that outdoor space can be used more or less the entire year), and the temperature is consistently warm with sunny skies, low humidity, and a dearth of irritable insects (Church, iv). In fact, the "modern California garden has been described as an informal outdoor living room, filled with deck chairs, tables, and swings, more social than horticultural in its attention;" in reality, this is an accurate depiction of how the courtyards of HMC's dorms are used (Church, iv).
Typical features of the California style that Church helped to create through the wide dissemination of his work in magazines like House Beautiful, House and Garden, and Sunset, are a predominant use of hardscapes adjacent to buildings; confined irrigated lawns; fences, walls, and trees hiding utilities and undesirable neighboring landscapes; and shade, provided by tree canopies and overhead trellises; again, all of these characteristics are applicable even half a century later to HMC's current landscape (Church, xi).
EPT, a landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm with offices in both San Juan Capistrano and Pasadena, began working for HMC during the College's most recent wave of growth and construction in the early 1990's (Eriksson). EPT was introduced to HMC via NTD Architects, of Glendora, California, who pulled them in for work on Olin Science Center, Linde Dorm, Linde Activities Center (Eriksson). During this time, EPT's primary contacts at HMC were Larry Hartwick, and very briefly Karen Yoshino, both of the Facilities and Maintenance Office. Dave Toms, the "T" in EPT, was the chief principal of the work EPT did for the College (Eriksson).
Over the past decade, EPT has worked on landscaping for Olin Science Center, the Baker Quiet Place, Platt Dining Hall, Linde Activities Center, Linde Dorm, the volleyball court, and Linde Field, as well and constructing the campus master irrigation plan (Eriksson). Toms, who is no longer with EPT, left no guiding principles for his designs and additions to campus, but his options were limited due to stringent funding. In the case of Platt Dining Hall, only $25,000 (approx.) was available for landscaping (Eriksson).
As mentioned previously, EPT worked on Olin's landscaping, which is one of several academic buildings that lie on the east side of the campus. Between these buildings are vast expanses of colored pavement, broken by the brickwork detailing patterns in the ground. Large pots and planters hold the only plants--commonly azaleas, flax, stonecrop, star jasmine, daylilies, and ornamental trees--save the wisteria that wraps itself up and around a pergola, forming the sole vertical feature of these cement courts. Brick buildings the color of ruddy desert sand jut up from this landscape, towering over these courtyards, their perpendicular, cantilevered rooftops stretching out past the building's rectangular footprint, exaggerating the shadows cast on the ground. The green tinted windows of some buildings here highlight the minute presence of life in these courtyards while the gray tinted windows of other buildings reminds one of the concrete that dominates the space.
However, this area's vast paved surfaces were required by the Fire Department for easy access by trucks to buildings. Furthermore, the expanse of pavement merely covers a complex of underground laboratories, shops, and classrooms. Having concrete atop this space is less of a feat than replacing topsoil and creating an entirely organic landscape, which would necessitate dealing with irrigation, drainage, and root issues (Eriksson).
Also in the early 1990's, Jim Sherman began working with HMC as a consultant. In this capacity, he created an "ecology plan" for the campuses that was primarily responsible for decreasing turf areas (especially under the canopies of the coast live oak) for both practicality and aesthetics. Through the continual replenishing of its evergreen leaves, the coast live oak creates a thick layer of mulch at its base, creating a tremendous amount of work for those interested in raking the leaves away for aesthetics. By widening the permissible areas for mulch beneath the oak canopies, areas needing raking were eliminated, and through strategic shaping and sculpting of these areas, the mulched areas were integrated into a campus-wide plan, achieving a purposeful looking design in their serpentine sprawl across the campus (Sherman [2001]).
In Sherman's own words, "By using curvilinear lines in selected areas, the formal neo-classical architecture and straight-lined campus layout is softened and visually pulled together into a more harmonious unit" (Sherman [c.1990]). He also felt that in reducing the campus' turf, the remaining lawn would be highlighted, heightening its presence (Sherman [c.1990]).
Sherman additionally proposed to add more trees and water-conserving shrubs and groundcovers to increase the campus' biomass, resulting in increased carbon storage and oxygen production (Sherman [c.1990]); however, the plan was only partially implemented, and only a few more oaks were added (Sherman [2001]). Had all of Sherman's plan been implemented, water, labor, petroleum products, chemicals, water contamination, machinery, noise, air pollution, green waste, and money could all have been reduced, while carbon storage, oxygen production, recycling, aesthetics, and natural habitat could all have been increased (Sherman [c.1990]).
Several of Sherman's recommendations were not adopted by the College including the use of decomposed granite on the HMC owned street-divider islands to further decrease turfscaped areas (Sherman [2001]). He also proposed that in addition to relying on a tree's dead foliage to provide mulch to a designated, mulch-requiring site, tree and hedge clippings could be recycled for this purpose, significantly reducing the campus' green waste (Sherman [c.1990]).
At present, the College is currently working with Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Massachusetts, revisiting and reexamining the master plan of the campus. This is Sasaki's second engagement with HMC, having worked with them in the past also on campus planning (Eriksson). The current inefficient, nonsustainable landscape of Harvey Mudd College is a drain on resources and suggests a lack of attention to the long-term impact of the technology used to sustain it. As Sasaki Assoc. boasts its firm as presenting "practical solutions for future changes in the campus environment" with respect to "environmental assessment and improvement strategies," perhaps the College will adopt a more environmentally conscious landscape design, furthering the educational potential of the school and consistent with the college's mission (Sasaki Associates, Inc.--Architects, Landscape Architects, Urban Planners").
3.7. Campus Description
Today the campus of Harvey Mudd College is a long, narrow 36-acre rectangle, bounded by Claremont Boulevard to the east, 12th Street to the south, Dartmouth Avenue to the west, and Foothill Boulevard (the historic Route 66) to the north (Figure 3.7.1). The campus buildings are primarily arranged around a central mall, which runs along the main axis of the campus. Earl Heitschmidt and Edward Durrel Stone designed the original campus buildings around this area in a Neo-Mayan style; their early architectural contributions to HMC, coupled with later buildings and associated concrete occupy 12.5 acres. Of the remaining 23.5 acres, 8 acres are asphalt, 11 acres are turf, and l 4.5 acres are planting beds landscaped with bark, ivy, annuals, and shrubs. A complete list of plants occurring on the Harvey Mudd Campus can be seen in Appendix O.
Figure 3.7.1. Aerial view of Harvey Mudd Campus, seen from the west.
Various landscape features delineate the campus borders. Sidewalks lining all edges of the campus are edged with grass and speckled with trees. To the north, a block wall physically separates the campus from Foothill Boulevard's busy traffic and noise. On the west, mature eucalyptuses in the narrow strip of lawn between the street and the sidewalk create an allée along the east side of Dartmouth Avenue between 12th and Foothill; unfortunately, these city-owned trees are all dead and have been for quite some time, posing a considerable safety liability to the College.
Within the campus, the center mall is the most defining feature, running nearly the duration of the campus, from Booth Plaza (which is in line with HMC's old entrance at 12th Street and Columbia Avenue) on the east to Linde Dorm on the west. Bordered to the north and south by constant rows of buildings, the mall is dominated by manicured turf, interrupted only by the pathways that cross it and the trees and annual flowerbeds that dot it. Technology, a guiding tenet of HMC's curriculum, is present here, from the often futuristic lighting structures to the gigantic antennas perched on the top of the buildings, mimicking the edifices in sheer size and stateliness.
In general, the footprints of the buildings on the mall have been well placed and organized; on the north side of campus the buildings have I-shaped footprints while those to the south have a complementary U-shaped footprints, so that both north and south buildings harbor courtyards that face out upon the central mall. Only a few of the buildings on the mall break this general pattern--Bell Pool, Atwood Dorm, and Case Dorm. Case and Atwood dormitories differ significantly in placement and architectural footprints from the other buildings of the campus in that when constructed, though they still bordered the central mall, they were not aligned with the prominent east-west axial line. Further, rather than their facades facing inward toward the heart of the campus, these buildings are introverted, having interior courtyards rather than courtyards that open up to the central mall. Bell Pool, the other building without a courtyard that opens up to the mall, was formerly owned by Scripps College, explaining its deviation from HMC's campus plan's general design principals.
Pathways intercept and traverse the central mall, acting as cross-walks for students, faculty and staff moving from one area of campus to the next. Further, it bears two major north-south cross-axial lines, the first of which is a double allée of liquidambars with walkways underneath. This allée is another design element of Scripps College that was acquired by HMC with the land purchase. The other major north-south feature is HMC's old entrance at Columbia Avenue and 12th Street. When Scripps College closed this intersection, the entrance became defunct, especially for cars. The HMC entrance cross-axial line is characterized by an amorphous continuity of pavement, scattered with small islands hosting oaks that create a shady canopy over the twisting cement walkways with grass, ivy, star jasmine, and leaf litter mulch at foot. In the center of this cross-axial line, just north of Hixon Court, lies Booth Plaza, a bare cementscape. Housing nothing in the center, it can only be described by the two pots of miniature roses, the four planters of ivy and pruned strawberry trees, and the several oaks that border it.
At the west end of the central mall, Olin Science Center, Parsons Engineering Building, Jacobs Science Center, and Keck Laboratories line the outskirts of a series of the vast paved courtyards that EPT helped to create. A covered walkway separates the buildings from the planter boxes, tables, and chairs that make up the heart of this complex. To the east of the central mall, past Linde Dorm, lies Linde Field, which marks the eastern edge of HMC's campus.
Completely separated from the mall is the Garrett House, which serves as a venue for meetings, concerts, dinners, as other functions, as well as a residence for a small number of students. It is logical for the Garrett house to be removed from the campus' central design, as it historically housed the College's president and his family.
Between the backs of the buildings and the surrounding streets are several different landscape elements. The farthest east and west outskirts of the campus contain the parking lots, which typically contain small, curbed islands growing trees for shading cars beneath their canopies. Outside of the parking lots, a dichotomy exists between the formal lawns and naturalistic coast live oak woodlands that span peripheral grounds of campus. Though turf fills much of the expanse, other areas contain oaks surrounded by seas of the oak's own leaf litter mulch. Although these latter areas, designed by Jim Sherman, were intended for harmoniously blending areas of the campus together, the way in which Sherman's proposed plan was interpreted in the actual implementation has boldly contrasted the preexisting geometric and angular landscape, detracting from campus unity.
As such, the campus has both highly organized and formal areas, regimented in symmetry and geometry, and decidedly informal areas, composed of meandering lines and amorphous shapes. While the oak planted areas on the exterior of campus are undoubtedly casual in nature, formal arrangements of shrubs are used to circumscribe buildings and visually divide many areas, complementing the neatness of the pampered lawn; the most commonly used shrubs at HMC are African boxwood, Rhaphiolepis, Pittosporum, privet, and oleander. These can be seen across campus in many forms, manicured in to box-shaped hedges, neatly trimmed to create squares and rectangles of various heights and widths, thick leggy trunks supporting a ovular canopies of foliage, etc. Ground covers like ivy and star jasmine also line borders and the edges of buildings.
Due to the organizations of HMC's many contrasting areas, campus unity relies heavily on horizontal monoscaping, turf, concrete and bark as a few examples, which has the effect of drawing more attention to the architectural features around them--HMC's buildings and trees. The predominant use of this approach to landscaping is logical to the campus planner because it is academia that should be highlighted on a college campus rather than the ornamental landscaping. On the other hand, the barren landscapes that grass and concrete create are unwelcoming and work against a college's goals of attracting new students, guests, and patrons. Clearly some compromise must be reached.
The presence of contained garden spaces on HMC's campus weds these two objectives in that they are a draw to the campus for their presence, and yet due to their enclosed nature, they do not subtract from the grand architectural or landscape theme. The Quiet Place, located to the north of Olin, is one of these such gardens, bordered by a demi-wall and a row of benches to the south, a high privacy hedge to the north, a manicured Pittosporum hedge to the west and open to the east as an entrance. The Quiet Place is one of the very few contained and purposeful areas of the campus, having both benches and other seating around, and a central focal point--a sculptural fountain. Between the water gushing from the fountain and the vehicular traffic on Foothill Boulevard to the north, the Quiet Place is not so much physically quiet and it is mentally for the visitor seeking a calming, focused respite. This clinic's demonstration garden, located east of the Garrett House and discussed further in Section 4, aspires to be another of these most needed areas, offering students seating amidst the shade, a pleasant atmosphere, and a content view of Pitzer's peripheral landscape.
Of the problems that currently face the College, one of the most pressing is the maintenance of the assorted plant collections with respect to the different watering needs that each species requires. Too often poor planning results in the inappropriate placement of drought tolerant plants with water loving plants; for example, around HMC's campus one can see instances of coast live oaks in ivy beds, California sycamores in lawns, etc. Not only is water being wasted, but often the integrity of a specimen is also being compromised. Only through analysis of the current landscape can problems such as these be identified and remedied. The current inefficient, non-sustainable landscape of Harvey Mudd College is a drain on resources and suggests a lack of attention to the long-term impact of the technology used to sustain it. An environmentally conscious landscape design would do much to further the educational potential of the school and would be more consistent with the College's mission.
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