Alliant International University is a world class private university with campuses located in major metropolitan areas in the US, Asia and Latin America. The Scripps Ranch area campus, located on a coastal mesa is framed by a dramatic canyon, ridge line and Eucalyptus forest. Under the recently introduced leadership of new campus ownership and management, the Office of the Designed Landscape was engaged by Jensen + Partners to provide campus master plan consulting and to develop strategic fast track landscape improvement projects to dramatically improve the appearance of the Campus for students and faculty. With planting design assistance provided by Charles Anderson FASLA, OotDL developed a landscape improvement strategy to remove aged exotic species and replace them with water conserving and habitat valuable California native species. The campus improvements, even in preliminary stages are providing enhanced campus identity, improved legibility, comfort and substantially more attractive outdoor gathering spaces. Eucalyptus trees, water intensive species and poorly managed shrubs have been replaced with drought resistant shade trees, slope stabilizing ground covers, native perennials and pollinator plants. Site drainage improvements have been implemented to reduce maintenance. The campus is currently exploring connections to municipal reclaimed water service to substantially reduce irrigation costs.

Project Team Esther Margulies, Brendan Kempf, Kristen Franz and Charles Anderson