The excavation behind the Residential Village on the southeast edge of campus is now complete.
Where the intramural fields used to stand is now the empty shell of what will eventually be a pond.
“The excavation work is completed, and seeding will take place shortly,” Will Hagen, vice president for strategy at Taylor, said. “It will also take some additional time for the pond to fill with rainwater,”
He said construction of the pond began shortly after the construction of the Residential Village was complete. While Hagen hopes it will be a visually pleasing addition to campus, he also said more practical reasons exist for the excavation project.
The primary purpose is for it to be a place to hold runoff water that no longer has a place to go after the townhouses were constructed, he said.
The excavation for the pond created a large excess of soil they decided to put to good use.
“We did need to create the pond for water control,” Hagen said. “But we have used the ground that was excavated to better level the rest of the field so it could be used for other purposes in the future.”
Skip Trudeau, the vice president at Taylor for student development, also weighed in on the purposes of the project.
The second was to create an aesthetically pleasing visual addition to campus.
Trudeau said the Main Street Mile Initiative plan includes a trail that will run from the pond into town.
“It'll be a great tie-in to the Main Street Mile Initiative with the trail. I mean, eventually you'll be able to go all the way around campus on the trail and all the way downtown and back on the trail,” he said.
Trudeau hopes that as seeding and landscaping begins, the space will become a place that students, faculty and members of the community can all enjoy.
Students of the townhouses also have thoughts about the construction in their backyards.
“I think the pond behind the townhouses will add another beautiful area to Taylor’s campus,” Hannah Learned, a senior psychology major, said. “The space behind the townhouses is very quiet and peaceful, and the pond will add to that. The outdoor area around the townhouses with the firepit, chairs and now the pond and landscaping will create a great space to spend time with friends.”
Hagen said excavation and construction to the space behind the townhouses is now complete.
All that is left now is for the grass to grow and the rain to fall.
