At Tuesday’s dedication ceremony for the Morris Arboretum’s new Horticultural Center in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood, lead donor Dorrance Hamilton remarked, “Thirty years is a long time to dream.”
The idea for the center originated in an age which had only a nascent environmental movement. Now, the 20,840-square-foot center — built to the highest modern standards of sustainability — is the new home for Hamilton’s dream.
The building will house the Arboretum’s horticulture programs and public education efforts, as well as provide office space for its staff.
Building components like geothermal wells, green roofs and solar panels have helped put the new center on track to receive a platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating — a measure used by the U.S. Green Building Council to classify sustainable structures.
Speaking at the ceremony, Hamilton conveyed her satisfaction and stated, “We made it.”
Construction began in 2008 when Penn President Amy Gutmann and the Arboretum’s Board of Directors broke ground, wearing hats with the slogan “always growing.”
David Cohen, chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees, said one of the Center’s greatest successes is its ability to serve as both a place of great beauty and a location for “real science.”
Penn officials such as Cohen and Gutmann have been deeply involved in the plans for the Center. Cohen spoke of the “uniquely Penn philosophy” that the center possesses as an area in which different types of knowledge are integrated.
The Horticultural Center is part of a much larger group of projects Penn has undertaken to further the cause of environmentally friendly living.
Gutmann pointed to Penn Park as another example of the University’s respect for nature and commitment to sustainability. The project, which will convert 14 acres of parking lots into green space along the Schuylkill River, will bring the “spirit of Morris Arboretum to Penn’s campus,” Gutmann said.
Gutmann drew laughs from the crowd when she described Penn’s commitment to education and nature as “ever-green”.
She also pointed to the importance of having a “glass half-full” mentality in the green movement. “The glass is overflowing for the Arboretum,” she said.
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