On November 5, 2025, I had the lucky opportunity to speak with Ron Henderson, professor of landscape architecture and urbanism at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Joseph Gawle, the arborist at Illinois Tech.
So, what is an arboretum? An arboretum is an area that is a collection of various species of trees and shrubs. While you may or may not realize, Illinois Tech is the location of one of the very few accredited arboretums in the city, Alphawood Arboretum. It’s currently named a level one arboretum, meaning it has over 25 species of trees, and is just short of being named a level two arboretum, meaning it would have over 100 different species (as of November 2025, it is just around 90 species).
As of right now, Illinois Tech’s arboretum is utilized for outreach, education, research, and caretaking. Openlands, a non-profit conservation organization, are one of the organizations that collaborate with Illinois Tech. In spring of 2025, the organization was in need of a space to train those aiming for certification, so 53 new trees were planted on campus (free of charge on our end with three years of continued maintenance, also free of charge). The College of Architecture also utilizes the arboretum as an educational tool for the landscape architecture students. Being located on a college campus, Alphawood Arboretum makes research accessible amongst a variety of professions. One example is the conduction of feeding preference trials for parasitoid wasps. Other efforts such as risk assessments, selective removals of trees (there will be an article published later about the removal of some mature trees, keep an eye out for that), and purchasing new equipment for further research are conducted within the arboretum.
On top of the current developments on the arboretum, Henderson and Gawle also provided some more insight on the development of the prairies on the lot in between the Paul V. Galvin Library and Herman Hall. This location, as stated by Henderson, was originally designed by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe to be the center of campus. After the development of the Dan Ryan Expressway and extra additions of Galvin Library and Herman Hall, the center of campus shifted to the intersection of State Street and 33rd Street. With the orientation of the new buildings facing east instead of north and south, the lot where the proposed prairie will be developed became an area where very few students spend their time. This new project has many goals behind it, but the main goal is definitely to give this space a reason for students to spend time in the area.
Chicago has historically been swamp land and prairie before it was urbanized and converted to majority hardscape. Over the years of urban development, the 20 million acres of prairie shrank down to just about 2,000 acres. While 1.2 acres may not be significant in comparison to what used to exist, it’s incredibly significant to the existing acres we have left. While it may appear that the arboretum and prairie developments may seem disconnected, they are actually mutually beneficial to each other. Not only will the prairie growing contribute to biodiversity research, it also creates a better growing environment for trees. Native plants are naturally able to create better soil by adding nutrients and breaking up compacted soil to make space for aeration and water. While this is a multi-year process to establish and grow this prairie, it will still provide many educational opportunities for both students and outside organizations.
While many of the efforts may go unnoticed by the general student population, it’s imperative that we support and thank the team in charge of establishing and maintaining our arboretum (especially Gawle). It may seem that there’s no way to do this, but the best method of appreciation is to spend more time outside amongst the greenery on campus. Yes, this is my long-winded article telling you all to “touch grass”.