Enhancements to Sustainable Landscaping

St. John's has pursued many different projects and partnerships to help enhance sustainable landscaping on our campuses. Including developing more sustainable Organic Soils Management through building an O2 Compost System on the Queens campus, and brewing Compost Tea. St. John's has also collaborated with  Million Trees NYC and has planted 800 trees on our campuses.

St. John’s University has been working with Louis C. Fusco Landscape Architects since 2005. Their goal has always been to create new and renovated spaces and corridors that are not only welcoming and user–friendly, but also promote a more positive connection to the environment through the use of sustainable practices.  The following are sustainable initiatives that have been employed on St. John’s University’s campus:

  • Traditional parking areas with large expanses of asphalt have been transformed into an eco- friendly parking environment with the planting of over 60 trees in bio-filtration strips to help capture and filter storm water run-off, improve air quality and reduce the heat island effect. (Union & Utopia Campus Parking Lot adjacent to Belson Stadium.)
  • The creation of several new pedestrian only zones, sitting/gathering spaces and the addition of bicycle rack locations have helped promote safe, sustainable travel means and healthy living, while reducing expanses of asphalt, parking and vehicular passageways. (Carnesecca Plaza, D’Angelo Lower Grove Quad, Stairway to Heaven, St. Vincent Hall Outdoor Cafe)
  • The plant palette used on campus consists of material that is hardy to the climate of the campus,which requires minimal watering, maintenance and the elimination of pesticides, fertilizers and non-organic supplements.(D’Angelo Lower Grove Quad, St. Vincent Hall Outdoor Café, Bent Hall, Belson Stadium, Town Houses, Newman Court & Fountain, Jack Kaiser Stadium)
  • In an effort to capture and treat a greater volume of storm water, our firm reduced and converted lawn and paved areas into planting beds.(Lower Grove Quad, Union & Utopia Campus Parking Lot, Bent Hall, Carnesecca Plaza, TownHouses)
  • Through their collaboration with the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) hundreds of trees have been planted throughout the campus to reduce the heat island effect and improve air quality. (Staten Island Campus and Main Campus)
  • Recycled furniture and site amenities as well as the introduction of LED and low voltage light fixtures have been specified to lower the campus’ carbon footprint. (Henley Road Student Housing, D’Angelo Lower Grove Quad)
  • Through our collaboration with the students at St. John’s University we were able to design and create the student community garden.