Oklahoma Christian University is constructing a new outdoor space on campus as a place for reflection and hope.
“Everyone on campus has experienced loss and so this space is kind of meant to be an area where we can reflect and celebrate hope as a community,” Director of Advancement Operations Will Blanchard said. “We want our students to come here and pray and to be together, to share stories with one another, to be authentic with one another, and we think it will become a really great space of just reflection.”
The outdoor pavilion will be located on the north side of the Mabee Learning Center, between the Payne Athletic Center and the Quad – the four original buildings on campus that include the admissions offices and administrative offices.
“It’s going to include some major aesthetic overhaul on all three of those big open spaces north of the library,” Blanchard said. “This will become a place where students can relax, hang out.”
Jerrod Dean, president of HortiCare Landscape Management, is the developer behind the new landscaping project, according to Blanchard.
“So much of what Jerrod and his team does with HortiCare is he works with what he calls ‘God’s materials,’” Blanchard said. “He takes trees, he takes grasses, he takes flowers and he plays with them and puts them in spaces to make it all work. So, sometimes that means the timeline is a little bit different, and maybe some things might not take full bloom and look the way he wants it and envisions it until later in the spring.”
The space will include a dry riverbed, more than 100 trees, a rock waterfall feature, a covered pavilion and other smaller, paved cove-like areas that separate the space from the parking lot.
“Everybody walks through this space all the time and it’s one of the last remaining spaces in the interior of campus that just doesn’t really look that good right now,” Blanchard said. “So, we’re going to take a space that has been kind of overlooked, despite the fact that we all use it so much, and make it pretty.”
This project will cost between $171,000-175,000, and the Oklahoma Christian Board of Trustees will fund the project.
“This is coming from families who wanted to invest, and they wanted to invest in this,” Blanchard said. “In fundraising, one important thing to remember is that if a donor wants to do something — that’s the only thing we can do with the money.”
As the HortiCare team breaks ground to start the project, investors in the space are providing their input.
“They’re being very hands-on with this,” Blanchard said. “We’ve invited them to kind of come in and interact with the space. So, this could change a little bit as they do that to make it better.”
Blanchard said the new landscaping would add curb appeal to the north entrance of Oklahoma Christian’s campus.
Outdoor venues are important for events on campus and activities that draw crowds to Oklahoma Christian, according to Blanchard.
“We have a lot of events in the gym, so this will be kind of a nice place where people can queue for those events rather than just being in the parking lot,” Blanchard said.
Blanchard said he wants the space to become one that facilitates the creation of traditions for students, like other college campuses have.
“Those kind of things are fun, long-standing traditions that people kind of latch onto,” Blanchard said. “As students kind of assign meaning to this and traditions grow out of this, this becomes a space that can become sacred to students. So, that’s part of it too is kind of extending those tangible stories on campus for students.”
Blanchard said the location of the renovated space coincides with other newly finished projects and projects to come, including the Common Grounds Coffee Shop on the second floor of the Mabee Learning Center.
“So, you’ve got a brand new, nice fitness facility overlooking what is now going to be a beautiful space,” Blanchard said. “I imagine a time where maybe students get coffee and come over [to the balcony] to overlook this space and talk to their spiritual life buddy.”
The space is currently unnamed and will likely be completed before the spring semester.
Blanchard said the space would be a part of the physical story of Oklahoma Christian as they work on other projects, including Eagle Landing that will replace the fountain in the middle of the Quad.
“The idea is to etch the name of every graduate in that space,” Blanchard said. “So, you can almost see this all evolving over time to an outdoor space that almost tells the story of campus from celebrating hope to celebrating legacy and so on and so forth.”
0
0
Be First to Comment