Sustainable Living and Learning Communities

Since 2019, students and staff working in the programs of the SLLC have worked with student designers in the project-based Landscape Design Architecture 141 course to create an integrated, accessible pathway network for the North half of the SLLC’s approximately 40 acres. In close collaboration with UCD Grounds and Campus Planning, the project will connect existing sidewalks in West Campus with vital open space resources and core academic programs of the SLLC. As West Campus continues to develop and densify, the need for (equitable) access to gardens and open space will only increase.

Student Woods Stewardship Plan Coordinator Lucy Yuan and Grounds Management Coordinator Suraya Akhenaton put together a video tour of the 1.5 acre Woods / East Entry SLLC project development space.  Now our communities can get a glimpse of the progress and potential for the space as this project continues, and so much has changed since March!  

The “East Entryway Project”, or more commonly known to SLLC members and affiliates as “The Woods Project”, aims to make space for student-centered design and sustainable stewardship of a space marked by tall trees and vines at the crossroads of the Ecological Community Gardens, the Feminist Research Institute, the Domes cooperative student residence and the Student Farm. A crucial connecting piece, the Woods has the potential to form a natural accessible link between SLLC communities and preserve mature habitats of plants and animals.