BY MARK HOUGH, FASLA
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects reimagines the campus at the University of Texas at El Paso.
FROM THE JANUARY 2017 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE
Christine Ten Eyck, FASLA, recalls driving across Arizona in the summer of 2012, talking on the phone with one of her clients at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). It was about a dream project: the opportunity to redesign the landscape of a historic university and create a major open space as its ceremonial heart. On the call, she was making the case to Greg McNicol, the school?s associate vice president for facilities management, that her firm, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, based in Austin, Texas, should lead the project rather than be subconsultant to an architecture firm as had been the plan. Her argument was simple: The scope of the work was almost entirely landscape architecture. Ten Eyck successfully persuaded administrators to give her firm the job, even though they were skeptical at first that a landscape architect could lead such a complex project. Notable among the people she won over was Diana Natalicio, who had been hired as UTEP?s first female president in 1988. During her tenure, the school had grown dramatically and become a top research university. Because of her leadership, Time magazine named her as one of the ?100 Most Influential People? in the world in 2016.
Natalicio was the main champion of the project, which became known as the Campus Transformation. It ultimately cost ...