Temple University Ambler's 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit will take visitors through a "METROmorphosis"
It’s difficult to imagine less natural settings than urban centers such as Philadelphia and New York. It is rare to see any vestige of the natural environment among the mosaic of steel, stone, and glass.
At the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show, Temple University Ambler Landscape Architecture and Horticulture students added a vibrant green to the gray shades of the urban landscape.
Temple’s exhibit — “METROmorphosis – Transforming the Urban World” — exemplifies the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s 2010 Flower Show theme, “Passport to the World.”
“METROmorphosis demonstrates ways to increase biodiversity, conserve natural resources, and promote local food production, thus transforming the urban landscape. Our goal is to inspire visitors to create attractive and diverse ecosystems in small spaces where a variety of plant and animal species can coexist,” said Baldev Lamba, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture. “Inspired by green and sustainable responses to the environmental problems associated with rapid urbanization around the globe, the exhibit will show creative and practical applications for small urban spaces.”
Rapid global urbanization has created environmental concerns regarding climate change, air pollution, clean water, food production and healthy living, said Lamba. In 2008, according to the United Nations Population Fund, about 3.3 billion people — more than half the world’s population — lived in urban areas and that number is expected to balloon to about 5 billion by 2030.
“Cities around the world are racing to become sustainable. Green roofs, urban beekeeping, vertical farming, rain water harvesting, solar and wind farms, waste recycling, and edible landscaping are some of the innovative ideas at various stages of development and application that will shape the future cities of a post-petroleum, low-carbon society,” he said. “This exhibit was developed in response to the relentless urban sprawl around the world that is stimulating an increasingly critical need for the creation of natural spaces and gardens within our towns and cities.”
More than 25 students in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture’s Junior Design Studio and Horticulture Directed Studies program have been diligently working on METROmorphosis for several months in preparation for the March Flower Show. Professor Lamba is coordinating the effort along with Horticulture Staff Supervisor and Adjunct Assistant Professor Grace Chapman and Adjunct Assistant Professor Michael LoFurno.
“Nature is always regenerating. If you see a vacant lot or building, you’ll see plants beginning to grow again, which in turn attract wildlife and re-create ecosystems,” said LoFurno. “As landscape architects, we strive to create designs that are both attractive and functional — we can develop urban landscapes that are useful, healthier, and more livable.”
METROmorphosis continues a long tradition in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture of interdisciplinary and hands-on learning experiences that promote a sustainable design approach.
According to LoFurno, the students are taking a team approach to the project — similar to how a professional landscape architecture firm would approach such a complex task. The teams are comprised of students focusing on: Architectural Structures; Garden Walls and Trusses; Garden and Eco-Wall Planning and Lighting; Paving; and Education and Publicity. The student Project Manager for 2010 is Landscape Architecture junior Hannah LaCasse.
“What we’re doing with this project is presenting ideas to make cities greener and more environmentally friendly. The movement toward greener cities is already underway — the green industry is growing every day. With this exhibit, we’re trying to show visitors how they can be a part of that shift to greener cities,” LaCasse said. “One of the great things about this project is that it’s really our first design that we are able to see through from beginning to end. Working with more than 20 people to successfully complete one project takes a huge amount of coordination — it’s extremely rewarding.”
A walk through METROmorphosis is a walk through well crafted examples of a variety of sustainable approaches to garden design within an urban setting. The exhibit consists of three primary sections — an urban “metro meadow,” a rain garden, and a courtyard featuring an “edible wall.”
“The metro meadow demonstrates an urban space being reclaimed by nature — hardy, resilient plants cracking the pavement and expressing themselves. There is hidden nature in all urban settings that wants to come out,” Lamba said. “The Courtyard includes an edible wall, featuring a variety of vegetables and herbs. The walls of the courtyard act as an aqueduct that collects rainwater that flows into the Rain Garden — it’s a very architectural, sculptural piece.”
Students in the Horticulture Directed Studies program have been working for two semesters to ready more than 2,000 individual plants from 150 different species for the Flower Show exhibit.
“Preparing plants for the Flower Show is an intense process. The students have to closely examine each plant’s life cycle, how they grow, when they will bloom, and under what conditions. Much of what we will be using for the exhibit will be reused in our campus gardens in some fashion,” said Grace Chapman. “Through our plant selection we’re trying to emphasize the theme of nature reclaiming the urban environment while using plants that are predominantly native to the area.”
According to Chapman, the Metro Meadow will be populated by a variety of grasses and other meadow species, such as bachelor button, Echinacea, cosmos, and bee balm while the Rain Garden will consist of several plants right from the Ambler Arboretum, including cattails, irises, rushes, juncus, pickerel weed, and lizard tail.
“Like all rain gardens, it’s an opportunity for us to showcase a different form of stormwater management — the plants filter toxins out of the water,” she said. “The edible wall in the Courtyard will include a combination of cool season, leafy greens such as lettuce, collard, kale, and bok choy with strawberries, chamomile, and scented geranium.”
You cannot be a good landscape architect “without a solid foundation in horticultural knowledge,” said Benjamin Laidig, a Landscape Architecture junior, who has worked in the Ambler Campus Greenhouse since 2008.
“Plants are the main materials you are designing with. There is only so much you can learn from a book and I’ve learned so much from the horticultural staff at Ambler,” he said. “Through our work on this exhibit, we want to demonstrate how cities can become more plant friendly. We want to bring ecosystems back into the city — they’ll come back on their own if you let them.”
The exhibit will also include a beehive, donated by Rossman Apiary, and an “Eco-Wall,” an artistic representation of the urban landscape and the natural landscape working in harmony by combining industrial materials with plants, bird houses, worm farms, and a variety of “found objects.” The handmade brick paving will also emphasize the theme of transformation with colorful mosaics of the metamorphoses of a butterfly and a frog.
Nature, Lamba said, “doesn’t ever just stop,” even if it’s built or paved over.
“Our intent is to show simple, tangible ways of bringing living ecosystems into our day to day urban living, and by extension help transform the world,” he said.
For more information on “METROmorphosis” or to visit campus during the exhibit’s construction, call
267-468-8108.
The Philadelphia International Flower Show, presented each year by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) is the largest indoor event of its kind in North America, welcoming more than 300,000 visitors a year. Temple University Ambler has a long and illustrious history with the Flower Show, taking home “Best of Show” awards in 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007, and prestigious honors from the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania in 2004 and the Horticultural Society in 2006. Temple University Ambler won an unprecedented five awards at the 2009 Flower Show, including a Special Achievement Award from the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania for “unusual excellence in the area of conservation” and a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Award of Distinction in the Academic Education category.
Building upon a rich history of environmental teaching that dates back to the early 1900s, Temple University Ambler is home to the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture. The degree programs are a unique blend of disciplines, providing students with the design and plant background necessary to succeed in any aspect of the Green Industry.
The Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture at Temple University Ambler, part of the School of Environmental Design in Temple’s College of Liberal Arts, is committed to excellence in ecologically based education. The department’s goal is to train leaders in the art and science of horticulture (A.S., B.S., and certificate programs) and landscape architecture (MLArch and B.S. programs). The programs provide students with knowledge and understanding of the environment so that they can improve the quality of our urban, suburban, and rural communities.
For more information on the Horticulture and Landscape Architecture programs at Temple University Ambler, visit www.ambler.temple.edu/la-hort. For more information on the 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show, visit www.theflowershow.com.
Temple University Ambler's "METROmorphosis" wins Best in Show at the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show
Many months of design, planting, nurturing, construction, ingenuity, creativity, and collaboration by dozens of students and faculty in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture at Temple University Ambler resulted in several major awards at the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show.
Temple’s exhibit — “METROmorphosis – Transforming the Urban World”— was presented with the “Best in Show” Award in the Academic Educationalcategory.
“The awards that we were given tell us that people appreciate all of the hard work that we have done throughout the year. I expect every student that worked on the exhibit is proud of what we have created,” said Landscape Architecture junior Hannah LaCasse, the project manager for the 2010 exhibit. “Working on a project from the beginning design process to final completion has shown us how a project undergoes many revisions. The most important aspect of the project was the amount of teamwork and cooperation that had to occur within a large group of people for us to succeed.”
METROmorphosis was also awarded the prestigious Bulkley Medal of the Garden Club of America. The Bulkley Medal is awarded to a special exhibit in the fields of horticulture, botany, or conservation and “must be one of exceptional educational merit, which increases the knowledge and awareness of the viewing public,” according to Flower Show organizers.
The exhibit was additionally awarded with the American Horticultural Society Environmental Award “for an exhibit of horticultural excellence which best demonstrates the bond between horticulture and the environment, and inspires the viewers to beautify homes and community through skillful design and appropriate plant material” and
and the Philadelphia Unit of the Herb Society of America Award for “outstanding use of herbs or an individual specimen herb.”
“These awards testify to the broad appeal of our exhibit and its exceptional educational merit. These are all very prestigious awards that reinforce our mission of conservation, sustainability, and beauty,” said Baldev Lamba, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, who coordinated Temple’s 2010 Flower Show effort along with Horticulture Staff Supervisor and Adjunct Assistant Professor Grace Chapman and Adjunct Assistant Professor Michael LoFurno. “Achieving all these objectives in a 24-foot by 26-foot space is a big challenge but I think our design, consisting of many spaces, makes it look much bigger. The exhibit is a complex integration of plants, structures, and art in a seamless composition.”
At the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show, Temple University Ambler Landscape Architecture and Horticulture students have added a vibrant green to the gray shades of the urban landscape.
“METROmorphosis demonstrates ways to increase biodiversity, conserve natural resources, and promote local food production, thus transforming the urban landscape. Our goal is to inspire visitors to create attractive and diverse ecosystems in small spaces where a variety of plant and animal species can coexist,” said Baldev Lamba, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture. “Inspired by green and sustainable responses to the environmental problems associated with rapid urbanization around the globe, the exhibit will show creative and practical applications for small urban spaces.”
A walk through METROmorphosis is a walk through well crafted examples of a variety of sustainable approaches to garden design within an urban setting. The exhibit consists of three primary sections — an urban “metro meadow,” a rain garden, and a courtyard featuring an “edible wall.”
“The metro meadow demonstrates an urban space being reclaimed by nature — hardy, resilient plants cracking the pavement and expressing themselves. There is hidden nature in all urban settings that wants to come out,” Lamba said. “The Courtyard includes an edible wall, featuring a variety of vegetables and herbs. The walls of the courtyard act as an aqueduct that collects rainwater that flows into the Rain Garden — it’s a very architectural, sculptural piece.”
The exhibit also includes a beehive and an “eco-wall,” an artistic representation of the urban landscape and the natural landscape working in harmony by combining industrial materials with plants, bird houses, worm farms, and a variety of “found objects.” The handmade brick paving further emphasizes the theme of transformation with colorful mosaics of the metamorphoses of a butterfly and a frog.
“I was looking at pictures from when the walls had just been put up and the eco-wall was just an empty frame. I could not have imagined how wonderful the final product was going to be,” LaCasse said. “We had worked on the design in different rooms and once everything came together it was incredible. The horticulture staff did a wonderful job with the plants that brought the exhibit to life.”
While touring the exhibit, LaCasse said, “I hope visitors will realize that there are many small things that they can do to help the environment.”
“There are a lot of fun activities that people can do at home that have been inspired by the exhibit. People were very interested in the eco-wall and several visitors have said that they plan on constructing their own eco-wall in order to provide habitat for animals,” she said. “The meadow garden has shown people that beautiful gardens can be created in cracks no wider than four inches. Children were especially interested in the mosaic pavers and visitors were also interested in how they could create their own mosaic art pieces to add to their gardens.”
METROmorphosis on the Road
On April 25, 2010, students and faculty also presented the award-winning METROmorphosis exhibit at the New York Restoration Project’s NYC Grows in Union Square Park. NYC Grows is annual environmentally-themed public festival that invites New Yorkers to explore community gardening, urban agriculture, sustainability, organic cooking and environmental education.
The New York Restoration Project invited Temple to participate in NYC Grows after viewing the exhibit at the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show, hoping to expose the exhibit and the lessons it taught to a wider audience.
Two days prior on April 23, students and faculty had reconstructed the exhibit once again for EarthFest 2010 at Temple University Ambler, Temple’s annual outdoor educational celebration of Earth Day.
The exhibit was well received by more than 10,000 students, teachers, and other visitors. Students shared information about the construction of the exhibit and the concepts presented.
“Cities around the world are racing to become sustainable. Green roofs, urban beekeeping, vertical farming, rain water harvesting, solar and wind farms, waste recycling, and edible landscaping are some of the innovative ideas at various stages of development and application that will shape the future cities of a post-petroleum, low-carbon society,” he said. “This exhibit was developed in response to the relentless urban sprawl around the world that is stimulating an increasingly critical need for the creation of natural spaces and gardens within our towns and cities.” 
“What we’re doing with this project is presenting ideas to make cities greener and more environmentally friendly. The movement toward greener cities is already underway — the green industry is growing every day. With this exhibit, we’re trying to show visitors how they can be a part of that shift to greener cities,” LaCasse said. “One of the great things about this project is that it’s really our first design that we are able to see through from beginning to end. Working with more than 20 people to successfully complete one project takes a huge amount of coordination — it’s extremely rewarding.”
Students in the Horticulture Directed Studies program have been working for two semesters to ready more than 2,000 individual plants from 150 different species for the Flower Show exhibit.
You cannot be a good landscape architect “without a solid foundation in horticultural knowledge,” said Benjamin Laidig, a Landscape Architecture junior, who has worked in the Ambler Campus Greenhouse since 2008.
2006. Temple University Ambler won an unprecedented five awards at the 2009 Flower Show, including a Special Achievement Award from the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania for “unusual excellence in the area of conservation” and a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Award of Distinction in the Academic Education category.
Many months of design, planting, nurturing, construction, ingenuity, creativity, and collaboration by dozens of students and faculty in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture at Temple University Ambler resulted in several major awards at the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show.
At the 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show, Temple University Ambler Landscape Architecture and Horticulture students have added a vibrant green to the gray shades of the urban landscape.
On April 25, 2010, students and faculty also presented the award-winning METROmorphosis exhibit at the New York Restoration Project’s NYC Grows in Union Square Park. NYC Grows is annual environmentally-themed public festival that invites New Yorkers to explore community gardening, urban agriculture, sustainability, organic cooking and environmental education.