Temple University Ambler has a long and rich history with the Philadelphia Flower Show dating back to 1916 and Temple Ambler's predecessor, the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women (PHSW). The Tyler School of Art and Architecture's Landscape Architecture and Horticulture programs, Temple University Ambler, and the Ambler Arboretum have taken home dozens of awards throughout that history.
According to Temple Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Associate Professor, Michael LoFurno, students in the Landscape Architecture Junior Design-Build Studio have been working for several months in four teams on different aspects of the 2023 exhibit, The Power of Nature — Plug Into It.
“The first is the emergent woodland, which focuses on the idea that an abandoned power station or electrical artifacts are being reclaimed by nature. Some things are left standing — telephone poles and electrical towers — but they are being taken over by vines and pioneer species are coming in,” he said. “The second area, the precipice, is going to be the tallest part of the exhibit. We always try to have a focal area that’s very tall and can be seen from across the show beckoning people to the exhibit. The precipice is reminiscent of the Wissahickon Valley in terms of what we’re trying to represent and will include some water elements.”
The timbered path that runs through the exhibit — constructed from mature trees felled by the tornado that struck Temple Ambler in 2021 — will provide a transitional space between different aspects of the exhibit, LoFurno said.
“We are once again creating a walkthrough exhibit so that people have a chance to get up close and smell the flowers, feel the water and be immersed in the exhibit,” he said. “The final area of the exhibit are the transformative towers. Those are relic steel towers that we are going to embellish in various ways — it’s a more geometric, orthogonal part of the design.”
Ziyu “Chris” Wu, a Junior Landscape Architecture major, worked with the pathway team during the fall semester and is currently working with the student team working on the exhibit façade.
“With the pathway, one side of the exhibit emphasizes nature while the other side emphasizes architecture — we chose different materials to correspond with those themes. This semester, the team I’m working with is focusing on the façade, which includes growing plants and water features,” he said. “For me, I’ve taken some inspiration from the designs of Temple’s previous exhibits. I hope visitors this year come into the exhibit, see the different themes we are presenting, experience the different textures and diversity in the vegetation, and the sound and feel of the water features. Hopefully there are aspects of the exhibit that inspire them.”
According to Lauren Kobistek, a Junior Landscape Architecture major, when working on the design students were initially given a preliminary concept plan to work from, “which has changed a lot since we first started working on the design in the fall.”
“It was our job to refine it and come up with construction drawings and the general theme of what we’d be presenting. We’re using materials from past Temple Flower Show exhibits — we’re trying to be sustainable in that way,” she said. “We had to create the construction drawings and those plans are continuing to evolve — they change as we build and figure out what is working and what isn’t. It’s a learning process that is really coming together collaboratively.”
For more information about Temple University's 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit, visit [ Ссылка ].
Learn about how Temple prepares plants for the show here: [ Ссылка ].
Learn more about the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at [ Ссылка ].
Learn more about Temple University Ambler at [ Ссылка ].
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