The Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) has recognized the University of Rochester’s Horticulture and Grounds staff with an Honor Award in the Society’s 2019 Green Star Awards® competition. The award was given for exceptional grounds maintenance on River Campus, the Medical Center, South Campus, and Mt. Hope properties. Winners were honored during the Society’s 2019 Awards Dinner on October 17 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Green Star Awards program brings national recognition to grounds maintained with a high degree of excellence, complementing other national landscape award programs that recognize outstanding landscape design and construction. The University is recognized for its rich tradition of incorporating trees to enhance the beauty of the campus setting. Throughout the University’s history, trees have been planted, maintained and preserved by the Horticulture and Grounds department—part of University Facilities and Services—and the University has long been recognized for the impressive and diverse collection of trees in its arboretum. This arboricultural tradition is an extension of the legacy of the Rochester area’s Ellwanger and Barry Nursery, which flourished in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Rochester and was once the largest of its kind in the country.
Overall, PGMS presented six grand awards, as well as 14 honor awards and four merit awards in nine categories of competition. View a complete list of winners.
The University has also been recognized as a Tree Campus USA school for nine straight years. The recognition is made each April through the national Arbor Day Foundation. Learn more about University Facilities and Services’ ecological efforts.