This redesign proposal of Lake LaVerne, prepared by senior Nolan Hovland, is one of about a dozen developed this semester by landscape architecture students for their design studio course. See more of the students' ideas in these additional sketches.
Lake LaVerne fans, this is your chance.
In the information-gathering phase of a broader plan to dredge, restore and maintain the south campus landmark, a design team invites interested faculty, staff and students to participate in a 10-question survey about the lake. It takes just a few minutes to complete and the information collected will be used to guide the redevelopment plan. The survey will stay open through Friday, May 2.
The design team seeks input to questions such as:
- How (and how often) do you interact with Lake LaVerne?
- If you could add anything to the lake or the area around it, what would it be?
In addition to a public survey site that anyone may use, a random sample of staff, students and faculty received an email April 14 with a unique link to the same 10-question survey. The email has the subject line, "Lake LaVerne Study," and was sent from Nora Ladjahasan, who coordinates research projects at the Institute for Design Research and Outreach, College of Design.
"For those who don't receive an email invitation, we want to give you an opportunity to weigh in," said campus planner Chris Strawhacker, real estate and capital planning, and a member of the design team. "Members of the public are welcome to complete it.
Take the survey
Any interested individual may complete the Lake LaVerne survey.
"We want to hear your ideas. We can't implement them all, but understanding what people value or would like around the lake gives us some direction as we go forward with the design," he added.
One response per email address is permitted.
Building on students' work
The survey expands on research and design work completed in January and February by members of this spring's Design Studies 5460 interdisciplinary studio course.
In the project overview for her students, landscape architecture associate professor Heidi Hohmann wrote, "The goal of our redesigns is to acknowledge the lake as a historic landscape campus icon while also envisioning how the landscape might better serve the 21st century student. Designs might propose new programs, uses, management and features/elements for the landscape in concert with lake manipulations."
Working in small teams, the 16 students in Hohmann's class completed a detailed history of Lake LaVerne, studied its past and current hydrology, assessed the limitations of the land area surrounding the lake and reviewed other small water bodies managed by universities or cities. With this information, they then developed about a dozen design plans for the area west of the Memorial Union that feature everything from a lake to a marsh to the original creek.
Class members presented all their findings and lake designs to the design team and President Wendy Wintersteen on Feb. 26.
"The level of their work in the time they could give this was really good," said Strawhacker. "There's a whole range of ideas in their designs, with some worth consideration in the plans to improve the lake."
The students' work also was guided by input they collected from members of student government, each college council and random students at the lake and in Parks Library, about 60 students in all.
Bigger picture at Lake LaVerne
Last spring, Wintersteen gave the design team permission to start work on a plan to restore and improve Lake LaVerne, a process estimated to cost about $125,000 and supported with private gifts. Actual dredging and restoration of the lake would cost at least $1 million and also rely on private fundraising.
In 2022, a team that included university employees and consultants from Shive-Hattery completed a six-month study of the lake that mapped water and sediment depths and analyzed water samples. That study concluded that two key issues with Lake LaVerne are water quality and water depth -- on average, less than three feet -- due to decades of sediment buildup on the bottom. Deeper water would improve water quality. Originally, Lake LaVerne was up to 12 feet deep in places.
Related stories
- Planning begins to improve Lake LaVerne, April 25, 2024
- A very good reason Lake LaVerne looks a bit soupy, Aug. 25, 2022
