STATESBORO, Ga. – Polished brick walkways, serene fountains and grand entry gates at Georgia Southern University’s campus are more than simple decoration to Chuck Taylor.
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For the award-winning landscape architect, who has spent the past eight years working at the 675-acre campus, the aesthetics have contributed to the university’s growing profile.
"I’m creating an image, an identity, a feel, something that lets people know this is Georgia Southern University, not just another building in the community," Taylor says.
Most major universities employ landscape architects to create and maintain a signature look that makes a lasting impression, says Gary Brown, a campus planning and design expert with the American Association of Landscape Architects.
"Eighty percent of freshmen choose a college for the way it looks and feels. That’s what they remember after all of their campus visits," Brown says.
Taylor has helped refine and unify Georgia Southern’s look by replacing cracked concrete sidewalks with brick walkways, dismantling old sheds on the edges of campus, constructing entry gates and fountains and moving parking lots and roads to improve traffic flow. The improvements, which are done out of a $1.4 million operating budget and 60-person campus crew, also include the campus maintenance such as weeding, mowing and trash pick-up.
In 2002, Taylor’s outdoor exhibit designs at the university’s Center for Wildlife Education won a Merit Award from the Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He recently won another Merit Award for his redesign of Triangle Park in downtown Statesboro.