The Carr Hall plant wall got a recent refresh, with dozens of new plants and an updated sustainable watering system.
The plant wall was created 12 years ago by students in several junior seminars, the core course designed to prepare students for their senior comprehensive project, according to Director of Sustainability Kelly Boulton, ’02.
“They (the junior seminars) worked with me, with the facilities department, with the architect and the contractor, and we asked them, like, ‘What do you want to see in this building?’” Boulton said. “And the students were like, ‘It would be really cool if we had a plant wall.’”
The students designed the plant wall, which required lots of research on how to make it work efficiently. After, the wall was realized and installed in Carr Hall.
This summer, the wall was completely renovated for the first time.
Boulton said the renovations improved the wall significantly and fixed previous problems.
The wall is watered using rainwater collected from the roof of Carr Hall. Boulton said the main problem they were attempting to fix was the watering system.
“The top of the wall was really dry and then the bottom of the wall wouldn’t get enough water,” Boulton said. “But we think it was because the pressure wasn’t high enough to get all the way to the top.”
To fix this problem, Physical Plant added an extra pump to the watering system so there would be enough pressure to water the entire plant wall evenly.
After the update to the watering system, Physical Plant, Boulton and Boulton’s student workers replaced all the plants and cleaned out all the pots and tubing. Boulton said choosing which plants to use was a very elaborate process.
“We actually worked with a company that specializes in green wall plants and so we kind of went by their guidance,” Boulton said. “They looked at the light levels, they talked about how the watering works and then recommended some plants they thought would be a good mixture.”
There are 12 different types of plants found on the wall that could adapt well to the location and amount of water it was provided with.
Lily Lehnhardt, ’27, is happy with the new wall.
“It’s very green — green is one of my favorite colors and they recently changed it so it is a lot darker green,” Lehnhardt said in front of the wall before her class in Carr.
There were many students involved with the renovations. Ian Dombach, ’27, was one of them.
“For me, putting up the greenwall was like doing a massive painting, but with plants,” Dombach said. “I really enjoyed the whole process, and it was cool to bring my ESS (environmental science and sustainability) major together with my minor in Studio Art.”
Dombach helped clean out all the tubing that is connected to the rainwater collection system that is kept on the roof and also replaced the old plants.
Going forward, the wall will need yearly upkeep as well, which students will participate in by taking down and cleaning up the plants before returning them to the wall for all students to enjoy.
Boulton said this is the first time the plants have been swapped out since the wall was originally put up.
Every day, students sit at the tables in front of the plant wall to study or relax before class, which students say provides a nice environment to be surrounded by and prepare for class. Catherine Wallance, ’25, said she has not seen anything like the plant wall anywhere other than Allegheny and that it is a unique feature of the college. Wallance said that benefits of bringing nature inside with the wall include cleaning the air and improving mental health just by having the plants present.
Though there are no plans for future renovations in sight, Boulton said the wall will develop over time until new ideas come about. Right now students are enjoying the new plants and watering system and the environment that the wall brings to Carr Hall.
“I just love how pretty it is,” Wallance said. “And how it brings the outside inside.”